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CHANCE AND CHANGE 
IN CHINA 



CHANCE & CHANGE 
IN CHINA 



BY 

A. S. ROE 

AUTHOR OF "CHINA AS I SAW IT 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



a$ 



W! 



Printed in Great Britain 



CONTENTS 



ix5 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER — OLD AND NEW 

I. THE SEDUCTIVE CITY ..... 

II. THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID. 

III. THE BLACK SMOKE ..... 

IV. A CHUNK OF RAW GINGER (SIGN OF A BIRTH) 
V. THE PHOZNIXES IN CONCORD SING (a WEDDING AIR 

VI. "A white affair" (a funeral) 

VII. PRESENTS WET AND DRY .... 

VIII. FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS . 

IX. FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES . 

X. THE DRAGON HOUSE ..... 

XI. THE GEM-HILL CITY ..... 

XII. THE SERPENT MONTH ..... 

XIII. ON THE " RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY " 

XIV. "fire medicine" ..... 

XV. COMBED BY THE WIND AND WASHED BY THE 
RAIN ........ 

XVI. THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 

XVII. IN THE STREET OF THE SHORT MILE GATE . 

XVIII. THE PEPPER MONTH ..... 

XIX. THE CONTEMPTIBLE ONE .... 

XX. " STOOPING SOLDIERS " (BRIGANDS) 

XXI. A PAINTED CAKE ..... 

INDEX ....... 



I 

5 
16 

37 
46 

55 
65 

77 

93 
106 

126 

i35 
149 

*59 

180 

193 

202 
225 
236 
248 

257 
270 

279 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 



A river gun boat .... Frontispiece 

NEAR THE " CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID "... 

'the "city OF THE river orchid" (steps ON WHICH 

PUBLIC EXECUTIONS USED TO TAKE PLACE) 

A PUBLIC BURNING OF CONFISCATED UTENSILS AND OPIUM 
PIPES, AND PACKET AFTER PACKET OF THE DRUG 
ITSELF. ....... 

MY PUPILS LU, WANG AND CHANG, PRESENTED ME WITH 
THEIR PHOTOGRAPHS . 

IN THE CENTRE SITS THE DESCENDANT OF CONFUCIUS 

REPUBLICAN TROOPS ON THE PURPLE MOUNTAIN (NANKING) 

REPUBLICAN SOLDIERS MARCHING INTO NANKING 

SONS OF NEW CHINA, IN CLOTHES LENT BY THE PHOTO- 
GRAPHER ........ 

THE "NEW WOMAN " OF CHINA, DRESSED LIKE A MAN 

A DAUGHTER OF NEW CHINA, WITH TWO ARTIFICIAL DOGS 
IN SUPPOSED IMITATION OF WESTERN FASHION. 

A CITY TEMPLE ....... 

REPUBLICAN SOLDIERS ...... 



18 



42 



42 

114 
114 
184 
184 

224 
224 

224 
244 
264 



CHANCE AND CHANGE IN 
CHINA 

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

Old and New 

As we stepped on shore at Hongkong, behold the 
streets were gay with many coloured flags in honour of 
the birth of the " People's Kingdom." A high official in 
the Imperial service, hurrying with all speed to Peking, 
laughed sceptically at the mere suggestion. " Who is 
this Sun Yat Sen ? " he said, " many in the north have 
not even heard his name." Our Imperial friend, however, 
preferred not to go on shore at Hongkong. He stayed in 
seclusion on board the steamer and took the precaution 
to have his queue removed before our arrival in Shanghai. 

Hongkong was certainly a little premature in its 
rejoicings, but during those first momentous days of the 
Chinese Republic some confusion arose in regard to 
dates. I remember no fewer than three " New Year's 
days," one according to the Western calendar, one by 
order of the Nanking Government on January 15th, and 
one on the old Chinese date at the beginning of February. 

In Shanghai the new era showed itself in many ways. 
Rents of houses, of every kind of lodging, rose by leaps 
and bounds, for all the world had brought his wife and 
his wealth to dwell in the safety of foreign Concessions 
until the storm had blown past. 



2 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

On open roadways, outside Concession boundaries, 
and on bits of land hastily converted into parade grounds, 
raw recruits in uniform and out of uniform were learning 
the German goose step. In the wild enthusiasm of the 
moment a corps of " Amazons " had offered their ser- 
vices. The President, it was said, highly disapproved of 
these women soldiers. How those amongst them, who 
happened to possess bound feet, contrived anything in 
the nature of a march, history does not relate. As a 
matter of fact, except on various occasions when they 
helped to guard the railway, it was doubtful if they were 
ever engaged in active service, and after a short time 
some returned to their homes, and others sought fresh 
fields of activity. One member of the " Amazon " corps 
—a distinctly capable young married woman — speedily 
exchanged the sword for a text-book on Kindergartens, 
and wisely decided that, as an inaugurator of a Froebel 
Institute in her native city, she would be of more use to 
her country than fighting as a soldier — a soldier moreover, 
who, under present conditions in China, could not even 
march to battle without a chaperon. 

In those days one came across many quaint sartorial 
effects in the streets of Shanghai. " Do but look at the 
cut of the clothes," said Carlyle, " that light visible 
result significant of a thousand things which are not 
visible." The clothes of fashionable Chinese women 
became tighter, pinched at the waist, and narrower at the 
sleeves, in foolish imitation of supposed foreign style, and 
in happy oblivion of the old tradition that tight clothing 
indicated poverty. The men, provided they were good 
republicans, docked their queues, and donned some kind 
of a foreign hat or cap. In the matter of headgear — 



OLD AND NEW 3 

cheap and trashy — Japan almost over-reached herself. 
By the summer cheap hats were at a discount. The last 
lot had succumbed to the first shower of rain, and the 
next consignment was re-shipped to Japan as " not 
wanted." Some enterprising Chinese tradesmen in the 
interior decided to make their own hats, and one of an 
ingenious turn of mind cut his brims and crowns out of 
discarded oil tins, and covered them with native flannel. 
One style of foreign hat was considered every bit as good 
as another, and at Wuchang a Chinese officer engaged in 
drilling his men had proudly added as a finishing touch 
to his uniform, a tall silk " chimney-pot." A certain 
little Chinese lady hit on the novel expedient of cutting 
a large round hole in the crown of her new possession so 
that her glossy black hair dressed on the top of her head, 
might still show to advantage. 

But while new China was buying foreign hats and 
suits of Western clothing and organising military proces- 
sions of a triumphal nature ; whilst youthful reformers 
were hurriedly commencing to take to pieces the old wall 
round the native city, and considering whether or not to 
melt down the statue of Li Hung Chang into copper 
cash — dark days of terror and bloodshed were over- 
shadowing many a town and village in inland provinces. 
There were armies galore — some Republican, some 
Imperial, others consisting merely of robbers and 
brigands. 

Meanwhile the Imperial Government maintained 
apparently a calm front, conferring degrees and publish- 
ing edicts to the effect that so-and-so might wear the sable 
fur jacket with lining, and that some other privileged 
person might ride ©n horseback in the outer court. 



4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The final descent from the " Dragon Throne " was 
worthy of all the traditions of the " Middle Kingdom." 
In no other country would it or could it have been 
accomplished so gracefully. One might almost have 
fancied that the idea of a Republic had partly emanated 
from the royal mind. There was something uncanny 
in the sweet good nature expressed in one of the last of 
those Imperial Edicts : — 

" Great distance separates the South from the North. 
Each upholds its own against the other, and the result 
is the stoppage of merchants in the road and the exposure 
of scholars in the field, all because, should the form of 
government be undecided so most of the people's lives 
will be thrown out of gear. Now the majority of the 
people of the whole nation are leaning towards republi- 
canism. . . . How could we then persist in opposing the 
desire and hatred of millions for the nobility and glory of 
one name. . . . Let Yuan Shi Kai organise with full 
powers a provisional government . . . and I and the 
Emperor may retire into a leisured life and spend our 
years pleasantly, enjoying courteous treatment from 
the citizens and (here one detects a touch of irony) seeing 
with our own eyes the completion of an ideal govern- 
ment. Would this not be a grand feat ? Respect this." 



CHAPTER I 

The Seductive City 

" Nanking," the " golden burial ground," as it used 
to be called in days of long past splendour ; Nanking, 
the " Seductive City," where a thousand years ago 
pleasure-loving emperors built fairy palaces for court 
favourites with fragrant walls impregnated with musk, 
and pavements of " golden lilies " ; Nanking, the 
southern capital in the days of the founder of the Ming 
dynasty, but now for long ages a mere ruin of its former 
self — awoke from her slumbers, and made an effort to 
look young and spry. Was not the first President of the 
new Republic actually living within her walls ? Sun Yat 
Sen, the magnanimous, who " self effacing like ice in 
water," was just now engaged in handing over the reins 
of government to the hero of the north as quietly and 
pleasantly as though it were merely a case of passing 
the salt. 

The Yamen had been swept and garnished in his 
honour. The king of beasts painted out from its gates ; 
the human parasites banished from the inner precincts. 
In the city itself all buildings of any importance from 
the temples downwards had been turned into barracks, 
the idols either torn down to make more space for the 
soldiers or left as part of the furniture of the mess- 
room. When the President appeared in public an up-to- 
date motor car with a trim little chauffeur in foreign 
garb took the place of the sedan chairs and red umbrellas 
and the official insignia of other days. 



6 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The city oozed with soldiers — 80,000 at the lowest 
computation — soldiers in khaki uniforms of Western cut, 
some of them thickly wadded with cotton wool, soldiers 
shambling and dishevelled in grey and blue or even 
magenta-red slashed with yellow. These last were the 
trained bomb throwers and displayed the nature of their 
calling inscribed in full on a white band across the chest. 
Within the city walls upon the grave-strewn hills, where 
lay the bones of many of those who had perished in the 
Taiping Rebellion half a century ago, these ready-made 
warriors blew forth discordant blasts from newly-pur- 
chased trumpets, morning, noon, and eve. In the narrow 
roads between the vegetable fields they marched along 
to the sound of vocal music ; in the busy streets they 
mingled with the crowd, sometimes walking hand in 
hand like affectionate school girls, sometimes carrying 
their birds out for an airing or gently bearing their tea- 
pots down the road for a fresh supply of hot water. They 
occupied the tea houses, they lingered in the shops 
appropriating oddments ; they tried on new uniforms 
in public places, and at open doorways. They com- 
mandeered rickshaws, slept peacefully through the 
morning hours in the horse troughs at the railway 
station, and did many other harmless and unexpected 
things. 

" We are paid to fight" they said, and in times of peace 
they claimed the privilege of doing whatever they 
pleased. 

Fighting seemed over for the nonce, but within the 
walls of Nanking a gaping wound remained to tell the 
tale of the passing of the city from the hands of the 
Imperialists into those of the so-called Republicans. 



THE SEDUCTIVE CITY 7 

The whole of the great Manchu city lay in ruins — a 
desert of broken walls, grey and cold, of scraps of paved 
courtyards and apertures that once had been doorways, 
through which a melancholy vista opened out of suites 
of ruined apartments. Nothing remained but crumbling 
heaps of stones, shut in by crumbling walls — the crushed 
habitations of a proud race that for 260 years and more 
had lived as a privileged people idling in the market 
place whilst other folk worked. North, south, east and 
west silent alley ways, roughly paved, led through this 
graveyard of a city — past broken columns that had 
once been pillars of palatial halls, past battered arch- 
ways that had once spanned the gates of lordly mansions 
— all gone now save for one touch of irony — the Spirit 
Walls * — whitewashed and bare, inscribed with a mam- 
moth character, meaning " Fuh " (happiness). These 
stood petrified, as it were, like sentinels caught slumber- 
ing, who had started up to find the gateway gone, which 
alas, it was their duty to protect. 

How had this appalling destruction come to pass ? 
Partly, so said some, through the terrible explosion of the 
gunpowder manufactory in the Imperial City on the raising 
of the siege. The Republican Army arriving on the scene 
soon after, put the finishing touches. It had been stipu- 
lated that there should be no massacre of the Manchus, 
so the soldiers set to work not to massacre but to destroy. 
In the panic that followed some of the terrified refugees 
sought refuge in suicide, others fled to the Tuh Tong 
Yamen, and some — mostly young women and girls, had 
mysteriously disappeared. 

* An isolated wall built in front of houses to prevent the ingress of 
demons. 



8 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The descendants of the Manchu garrisons, which in 
the early days of Manchu rule were established in all the 
provincial capitals, were divided into three classes — the 
Djoh, the I and the Pin. The Djoh, being wealthy, had 
in the majority of cases made good their escape before 
the commencement of the siege. With true Oriental 
lack of sympathy, however, there were instances of poor 
relations left behind to shift for themselves as best they 
could, and with them some 3,000 or so of their poorer 
neighbours. 

After the soldiers had had the first pickings, the 
coolie population followed in their wake, and finally the 
beggars gathered up the crumbs. In the end it was 
hardly to be wondered at, that nothing portable remained 
unappropriated. Fallen beams, doors, gateposts, every- 
thing in the nature of woodwork were coveted prizes, for 
the weather was cold just then, and fuel unusually dear. 

No doubt the authorities at Nanking felt that they 
could not safely ignore the existence of an army of home- 
less Manchus within the city walls. Something must 
assuredly be done, the question was how little would 
suffice. The Tuh Tong Yamen must get rid of them 
somehow, the sooner the better. Thus it came about 
that here and there in the ruined city, a few houses only 
partially destroyed were discovered. These were turned 
into public refuges and a daily dole of rice apportioned to 
all who gave in their names to the authorities. 

Green and blue, the green of willow trees bursting 
into leaf, the periwinkle blue of the ubiquitous calico 
gown — grey stone walls with here and there a splash of 
gory red — alwavs remind me of the city of Nanking in 



THE SEDUCTIVE CITY 9 

the spring time. Not indeed in the heart of the city, for 
in those narrow streets there is no room left for willow 
trees, and even the blue calico gown was less in evidence 
in the early days of the " People's Kingdom " than the 
semi- Western uniforms of the soldiers. Within the walls 
of Nanking, however, one may drive mile after mile 
along streets, in which there are as many fields as 
shops — along roads lined with trees and with the walls of 
gardens — along lanes which creep in and out amongst 
the vegetable fields, or grassy hills bulging with graves — 
and some of the graves were especially odoriferous, for 
they were made in a hurry after the fighting between 
the Imperial troops and those of the new Republic. 

Wherever one goes, soldiers of some sort are inevitable 
— soldiers carrying boughs of peach blossom, soldiers 
pushing along hand carts, heaped high with furniture, 
soldiers riding rough unkempt ponies with bridles made 
of rope, soldiers sauntering, soldiers lounging. No 
wonder there are " flying words " that this regiment or 
the other is contemplating mutiny ; that the men from 
different provinces are at loggerheads, and that all are 
dissatisfied because their pay is in arrears. 

Some finance themselves by appropriating goods from 
the shops, and the shopkeepers in the wealthiest part of 
the city, where the silversmiths and silk merchants 
congregate, had agreed with a certain stalwart company 
of soldiers to pay them so much a month provided that 
their shops were left undisturbed. A good many trades- 
men, however, adopted a more economical plan, and 
more than one of the big silk stores kept up, as it were, a 
smiling exterior, but the wide open doors and the shop- 
men behind the counter were onlv a ruse. There was 



io CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

nothing left on the shelves of any real value. Vegetable 
sellers from the country were fortunate if, on the way 
to market, the contents of their baskets were not com- 
mandeered by the soldiers. They commandeered most 
things, from the rickety rickshaws to the little train that 
was intended to carry passengers from the railway 
station four miles outside the city gates to the city — and 
one day, in the exuberance of their spirits, they com- 
mandeered the idols. 

The southern troops were the leaders in this crusade 
against idolatry. That was indeed a day of terror for 
the priests who lurked behind the temple walls, and for the 
nuns crouching in the nunneries. The people have at the 
best but a low opinion of priests and nuns. 

" Ten Buddhist nuns and nine are bad. 
The odd one left is doubtless mad," 

goes the adage, and that day over a hundred Taoist and 
Buddhist shrines and temples in the city of Nanking were 
shorn of their treasures. So sudden was the onslaught, 
so unprepared were the priests, and so dumbfounded, 
that not the slightest opposition was offered. The 
soldiers strode in and out again, destroying as they went. 

" Do your idols eat cake ? " they asked. " If they do, 
well and good, if not, they are useless." 

And as the idols, one and all, rejected the tempting 
morsels, they were promptly hacked to pieces. 

In front of our gates stood a humble one-storied house, 
scrupulously neat and tidy and surrounded by a vegetable 
plot, in which the lines of cabbage plants and so forth 
were as svmmetrical as the lines of a chessboard. Its 
mistress, a dapper little woman in a flowing gown of pale 
grey, was a Buddhist nun, and the house was called a 



THE SEDUCTIVE CITY u 

nunnery, although our friend lived there in solitary state, 
save for the presence of a serving-woman and two small 
acolytes. 

On the day of terror, a handful of soldiers followed by 
a crowd of riff-raff, forced open the front doors and dis- 
appeared within. In a few short moments they were 
back again bearing a ponderous " goddess of mercy " 
of gilded wood, hacked and disfigured. Without more 
ado they made a bonfire of " her " by the side of the 
road, but she did not burn readily, and through the 
next twenty-four hours or so smouldered odoriferously, 
emitting a smell of singed cloth and burning paint. The 
little nun took the matter very philosophically. We 
called in to see her, wishing to buy a trophy, but there 
was nothing left to buy — only heaps of rubbish, scraps 
of gilded wood, incense sticks, candle grease and broken 
oddments. 

We supposed that her source of income had vanished 
in the flames with her idol, that there would be no more 
offerings of food or money — no dainty dishes for her 
own consumption after the goddess had finished with 
them, but inquiry elicited the fact that she had private 
means of her own, to say nothing of a brother who, she 
said, might now come and live with her, in which case 
she would get on quite comfortably without the " goddess 
of mercy." 

The soldiers' fray with the idols led to more serious 
events, and one night we were aroused from our slumbers 
to find ourselves on the outside edge of a battle. A 
certain section of the troops had broken out into open 
rebellion as a protest against their long overdue pay. 
Half through the night and on and off through the follow- 



12 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

ing day the firing continued. The rice shops, the money 
shops — every shop of any importance in a particular 
quarter of the city had been looted ; the streets were 
littered with dead and dying. The men had lost all 
control of themselves and fought like devils — no wonder, 
for as the day broke they knew that the odds were 
against them. They were far outnumbered by the 
troops that had remained loyal, and to the captured no 
mercy was shown. During that week 200 executions 
took place, and baskets laden with bleeding human heads 
were carried as a warning to others through the principal 
streets of the city. 

The hot weather comes on rapidly at Nanking, and on 
sultry days the air was heavy with the peculiarly 
obnoxious smells without which no Chinese city is com- 
plete. The primitive methods by which material for 
enriching the soil is collected in public at street corners 
in almost every street of the city, was painfully in 
evidence in the erstwhile southern capital. The old order 
was changing in many ways, but not in the matter of 
dirt. On the contrary, the dirt showed up more repel- 
lently than ever side by side with Western innovations. 

There were many quaint contrasts of the new and the 
old in these days of transition. One would come across a 
son of " New China " in immaculate European garb, 
making a purchase in a shop that was fitted with plate 
glass windows in foreign style and dressed with haber- 
dashery and swords, with babies' bonnets and military 
caps, with looking-glasses and slate pencils. 

The words " Military dress of hat and clothing " were 
written in large type in the English language over the 
door, but the salesmen behind the counter had no desire 



THE SEDUCTIVE CITY 13 

for uncomfortable European clothes, or indeed for any 
clothes at all. Overcome by the sultriness of the weather 
they had adopted their summer costume of nothing above 
the waist and very little below, and in spite of their lack 
of attire were glistening and streaming with moisture. 
On one occasion we passed a member of the disbanded 
Amazon Corps — a girl in masculine garb with hair cut 
short like a boy, whilst a. daughter of the old school, 
sitting on the side of a well, looked after her wonderingly, 
and then turned and deliberately expectorated into the 
well water. Why not ? That there was anything 
unclean in the act would never have occurred to her ! 
Foreign hats were in great request, and in the street 
some children, innocent of all other clothing, were 
wearing as sole articles of attire, hats of plaited straw 
and frilled silk, and were carrying fans ! 

The new era showed itself in many ways within the 
Yamen gates. One noticed an unusual air of austerity 
and a marked absence of the " skirts and ornaments " * 
of other days. Moreover, foreign buildings contained the 
Government offices, and a suburban villa and a bungalow, 
occupied, the one by the chief himself and the other by 
the second in command, were built in foreign style. We 
found ourselves one afternoon as guests at the bungalow, 
drinking, what was supposed to be foreign tea, in cups 
half filled with condensed milk and lumps of sugar. 

The house was furnished in Western mode, and 
Chinese taste, still untrained in these matters, had decided 
that a suite of hall furniture would be appropriate for the 
reception room ; therefore a hat-stand with mirror and 
coat pegs — all complete — occupied the place of honour. 

* Women-kind. 



i 4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The Yamen at Nanking boasts a garden of real Chinese 
type, of artificial lakelets spanned by stone bridges 
amongst miniature mountains tucked in between pigmy 
forests. One grotesque " foreign " touch, however, had 
lately been added in the shape of a glaringly white 
" house-boat," furnished in foreign style, fitted with 
electric light and, alas ! built upon a rock — significant this 
of many other superficial imitations of Western customs 
in these strange times. 

In most provincial capitals the old examination cells 
have disappeared, but in Nanking nearly 20,000 of them 
remain. Looking down from the watch towers, built 
every here and there in their midst, one seemed at first 
sight to be perched above a brown-hued sea of " poultry 
houses " — built in long rows, with narrow passages 
between the rows, radiating from central alley-ways. 

Each building measured six feet long, and there, in by- 
gone times, as in a living grave, day in and day out, ill or 
well, the candidates remained during the space of time 
allotted for the examinations. Their food was passed in 
through a hole, and when at last the ordeal was over 
and the doors opened, it was sometimes found that more 
than one had given up the contest and passed nolens 
volens before the final tribunal. 

The Republican authorities were making good use of the 
great examination halls situated at the far end of the 
forest of cells. 

They were crowded from wall to wall with a squealing, 
screeching army of children — poor, miserable, angry, 
unattractive morsels of humanity. A sharp-featured 
woman here and there administered harmless though 
undiscriminating blows with a bamboo rod. 



THE SEDUCTIVE CITY 15 

Where had all these children come from ? What were 
they doing here ? 

The answer was unexpected. They were the purchases 
of the soldiers from the south — bought at the rate of zs. 
a child, or even less, to take back to their homes with them 
to turn into " tu-di " (apprentices) or for some other 
useful purpose, but the Nanking authorities had decreed 
otherwise. All children whose parents could no longer 
be discovered, and one presumed this to be the general 
rule, were to be trained for some useful trade in an 
orphanage run by public funds. The " bear-garden " 
was evidently the orphanage in embryo, but alas, by all 
appearances, it was desperately in need of an organiser. 



CHAPTER II 

The City of the River Orchid 

Bamboos — nothing but bamboos, climbing the steep 
hillside above us, clinging to the precipitous slope below 
— low mountains all around clothed with bamboos from 
base to summit, tiny valleys in the depth beneath almost 
choked with the same green feathery trees. 

" A bamboo a bamboo was to me and nothing more," 
but to a son of Han a bamboo may mean any one of a 
score or more of useful articles — from a delicious food to a 
summer waistcoat — from a piece of furniture, or a rope 
of great strength to a delicately constructed flea catcher ! 

The house in which we were staying clung, as it were, 
to a ledge of rock, a little below the summit of one of 
those bamboo-covered hills, and the drooping boughs 
were like giant ferns swaying before our windows. The 
forest was not without flowers. Here and there, great 
lilies of a luscious creamy white shone like stars in green 
hollows. Year by year, however, the lilies grow more 
scarce, for the Chinese cook the bulbs in syrup, and eat 
them for dinner. 

China with her undisciplined soldiers, her political 
parties, her aspirations and her tragedies, had been left 
behind in the plains. The peasant folk living amongst 
those bamboo forests pursued the even tenor of their way 
untouched, and wholly undisturbed by the doings of the 
outside world. 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 17 

One Kv>t scorching afternoon we slid rather than 
walked down a steep, slippery track under the trees to a 
little village lying in the shadows at the foot of the 
mountain — a village innocent of shops, innocent even of 
temples ; there had been one once they said, but now it 
was occupied as a family dwelling. The houses, clustered 
together on the banks of a rushing mountain stream, 
were wreathed around by vegetation of an almost tropical 
growth, broad-leaved Indian corn, spreading palms, 
banana bushes, peach trees and pumelos, and beyond 
the gardens, fields of waving grain, and beyond the 
fields, bamboo forests thicker than ever and a blue vista 
of mountains. 

The inhabitants had practically no need of shops. 
There are apparently many of these " self-contained " 
villages still left in China — where the people grow their 
own cotton, weave their own cloth, keep their own silk- 
worms and make their own silk, grow their own rape 
seed for oil, their own rice, millet, corn, tea and tobacco, 
build their houses with mud bricks dried in the sun, 
make mats of palm leaves, and rain coats of palm fibre. 
Usually the only two articles bought outside are paper 
and salt. Even the children's toys, where indeed they 
possess any, are of home manufacture. The Chinese boy 
has an ingenious way of making his own butterfly net. 
He slits a piece of bamboo for a few inches down the 
middle, and inserts between the fork a slender bamboo 
stick. This he plunges into bushes thick with cobwebs 
in the early morning, and winds it round and round till 
there is an elaborate network of glutinous cobweb 
threads, and woe betide the insect or the butterfly that 
comes into too close a contact with this sticky gossamer. 



1 8 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The men who gathered round to look with interest at 
the outside kingdom folk, still wore their queues and 
saw no reason to change the fashion of their forefathers, 
for things political had no interest for them. That 
China was now a "Min Kueh" (People's Kingdom) and 
not an Empire, they had heard, but the matter was 
of no consequence. Besides, it was, as far as they 
knew, one and the same thing. No soldiers had come 
to trouble their peace — there were no robber armies to 
upset the neighbourhood. Honest, straightforward people 
they seemed, simple and unsophisticated. " Those 
who live amongst the mountains," say the Chinese, 
" are virtuous." " Those who live by the water are 
wise." 

In the same province of Chekiang, not a year ago, a 
robber chief, known by the name of " Spirits of Wine," 
with his army of bandits had raided city after city, pos- 
sessing himself of large sums of money, killing and 
destroying. In orthodox Chinese style the authorities 
had offered him official posts in order to keep him quiet, 
but " Spirits of Wine," though originally only a stone- 
mason by trade, is said to have declined any office less 
important than that of a Viceroy, and as this was not 
forthcoming, he preferred to remain a bandit. Of late, 
however, fortune had turned against him — many of his 
followers had been killed, others had deserted, and 
" Spirits of Wine " for the time being had retired into 
private life. 

I was destined to become more intimately acquainted 
with the province of Chekiang before the end of the 
year, but not, I am glad to say, with the robber 
chief. 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 19 

The City of the River Orchid lies on the banks of the 
Tsien-tang river some 200 miles from the coast. 

Not far from the West Gate outside the city walls 
there stands a house slightly higher than its neighbours 
— flanked by two tall banana bushes — so small is one of 
the upper windows, and so large the banana leaves that 
one single leaf hangs like a green blind hiding the panes of 
glass. The house is built on the river bank round three 
sides of a little courtyard walled in by a high white wall ; 
from the upper windows one looks across to the opposite 
shore — backed by a ridge of blue hills. Sometimes on 
sunny days the opposite shore is streaked and lined with a 
vivid peacock blue. I used to wonder why the fields should 
suddenly assume this brilliant tone of colour, but soon dis- 
covered the cause to be cotton cloth — an acre of it or more, 
freshly dyed and spread out in long lengths to dry. The 
sun sets over that opposite shore flooding the water with 
golden light, and turning the fields and the trees and the 
mountains an inky black against a sky of crimson fire. 

It was early in November when I first arrived. Along 
the banks of the river the tallow trees were in all the glory 
of their blood-red autumn foliage — in a day or two the 
farmers would begin to gather the snow-white berries 
to sell to the candle makers. The cottager who happens 
to possess a single one of these tallow trees in his bit of 
ground possesses an addition to his yearly income which 
is not to be despised. The monster camphor trees are 
still more valuable. They stand out here and there on 
the river bank like forest giants with their glossy ever- 
green foliage. 

In front of the city the river is the third of a mile wide, 
a busy scene at all hours of the day. The whitewashed 



20 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

houses peeping over the whitened city wall look down the 
muddy bank to the heavy fringe of brown-hooded boats 
along the water's edge — the permanent homes of many 
a large family. The boats come and go, but some are 
never away for long, and there are always others to 
take their place. Here and there, stretching far out 
beyond the shore, are the timber merchants' stock-in- 
trade — rafts of logs tied together to be kept till wanted. 
Further down, in a less reputable quarter, are the " flower 
boats " spick and span — bright with pot plants and gaily 
curtained windows clean and freshly painted, the dark 
blots on so many a riverside city — and in passing, one 
catches a glimpse of young girls in dainty silks and 
jewellery, peeping forth at the world of which they know 
so little, save in its saddest and bitterest forms. 

Out where the current flows more swiftly, the fishing- 
boats are coming in with their cormorants — so tame are 
the birds, and so obedient that they answer to a call, and 
so sharp-sighted that often a gesture from their master 
is all sufficient. It is said that though hundreds of these 
wise black birds may be fishing together at one spot, no 
well-trained cormorant will mistake another boat for 
its own. 

Beyond the city the glistening waters of the river drop 
out of sight at the foot of the mountains draped in their 
beautiful autumnal robe, which made one think of the 
violet and amethyst lights and shadows on the Yorkshire 
moorland hills. 

A warm welcome awaited me in the white house behind 
the banana bushes. The clean sweet atmosphere of a 
well-ordered English household in the midst of the horrible 
filth of a Chinese city was unspeakably refreshing, after 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 21 

the close quarters on my brown-hooded boat, where for 
days the cold wind and the unsavoury crew had occupied 
all but my own private domain (the corner on the bed 
quilts behind a screen of curtains). Every detail was a 
pleasure from the open windows and the banana leaves to 
the white cloth on the tea table and the fresh herbal scent 
of a bowl of chrysanthemums. 

The three " Giao-si " (teacher sisters *) were all at home, 
as it happened. 

They were the only " outside kingdom folk " in the 
place, not counting myself ; but then I was only the 
" from Shanghai come guest," as the people said, and 
was staying there to " hsi " (play). 

The west gate of the city facing the river looks like the 
entrance to a tunnel mounted high above the water's 
edge on the top of two long flights of steps. The steps 
are black with liquid mud, the walls of the tunnel are 
black with age and dirt, but the city walls are white- 
washed and " make a show " (more than that one cannot 
expect in China) of being clean. The first flight and the 
second are divided by a narrow terrace, and here not 
more than a year ago the public executions used to take 
place. In these days criminals condemned to death are 
usually shot, and not decapitated, but were it not for 
the dread of appearing in the next world without a head, 
one cannot but think that the unlucky victims would 
prefer the old method to the new — in order to avoid the 
long drawn-out agony of acting as targets for soldiers 
who cannot shoot straight. The black tunnel, like a 
gateway, is a fitting entrance to a city in which the main 

* Members of the China Inland Mission. 



22 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

streets are always coated with slimy mud even on the 
dry days. Morning, noon and eve the water-carriers 
come and go, and the water, splashing over from the 
sides of their open buckets, mingles with the mud and 
the refuse, which in these days of the " People's King- 
dom " it is nobody's business to remove. Morning, 
noon and eve carriers of other buckets — the contents of 
which are destined for the fields — pass out of the gates 
with their odoriferous burdens. They have paid just 
about three farthings for their purchase. Not long ago 
there was a talk of raising the price by another few cash, 
but the bucket carriers went on strike, so the old rate of 
payment is still in force. 

The main streets are narrow, six feet wide at the out- 
side, and the paving stones along the centre sometimes 
rock ominously under one's weight. Through sundry 
cracks and crevices one catches sight of the stagnant 
water underneath of — the city drain ! The side streets 
are usually residential streets, but the houses — hiding 
behind high walls — are for the most part invisible, save 
for an occasional inconspicuous doorway. Some of these 
side streets are hardly more than three feet wide, and 
lead the way by a series of " knight's moves," till, like 
Alice in the Looking Glass Garden, one almost expects 
to find oneself at the end, back again at the beginning. 

The side streets are comparatively deserted, but the 
main streets are so densely crowded that it is usually 
necessary to walk in single file, and often the way is 
blocked by some burden bearer, who chants forth a 
warning note all along the street to clear the road before 
him. " Take care, take care ; I am carrying oil ! " — 
knowing that no one will willingly rub up against an 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 23 

oil tin and spoil a good gown. Sometimes the burden 
will be something far less obnoxious, but, by the magic 
word oil or fish, the crowd has moved aside, and the 
bearer has gained his point. 

Fortunately, there is no wheeled traffic, and only on 
the rarest occasions does a rough-haired little pony 
patter through the streets, scattering the pedestrians to 
the right and left, with its rider of the John Gilpin type, 
who seems to say, as he clatters by, " I came because 
my horse would come ! " 

The open-fronted shops on either side of the narrow 
pavement encroach as much as they dare on the public 
highway, and their privileges are many — some are 
literally disgorging their goods on to the pavement — 
and others, old clothes' shops for the most part, hang 
forth an assortment of gaily-coloured garments over the 
heads of the passers-by, much as an English inn hangs 
forth a signboard. Now and again a portion of the 
pavement is occupied by a street stall, and sometimes 
by a " roulette table," at which clients, mostly children, 
are gambling for oranges. A medicine stall, larger than 
the rest, is only to be seen on fine days, as rain would 
damage the valuable stock-in-trade — the bears' paws, 
the tiger jaws, the human teeth, the dried centipedes, 
the withered lizards, the petrified sea-horses. 

The owner, an aged man with sunken eyes behind 
great horn spectacles, not only sells medicine, but per- 
forms operations for all the world to see. I passed him 
one day busy cupping a patient, who sat in a state of 
semi-nudity on the side of the pavement, placidly under- 
going the prescribed treatment, and no one showed the 
slightest interest. On another occasion I stopped to 



24 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

make a purchase of a dried centipede, about five inches 
long ; price, the seventh part of a penny ! On the 
bamboo hills, last summer, centipedes were the servants' 
perquisites, not that any one wished to dispute their 
claim, far from it. One day an enormous specimen was 
borne carefully away from the verandah unkilled, and, 
on inquiring the reason of this apparently gentle treat- 
ment, the answer was that, in order to fetch a good price 
in the medicine shops, the poor beast must be slowly 
scorched to death ! One could not help wondering what 
price was considered good when the final sum paid by the 
customer amounted to the seventh -part of a fenny ! Had 
my especial trophy been bought for use, and not for orna- 
ment, one would have soaked it in hot water and applied 
the lotion externally for a gathering or an abscess. The 
lizards, so the old man said, were excellent remedies for 
heart disease, the sea-horses most efficacious for wounds, 
and the bears' paws good for dropsy. A few days later 
the old doctor had forgotten all about the dropsy, and 
muttered that bears' paws were sold for rheumatism. 

In these days of the " People's Kingdom " police in 
semi- Western uniforms and German military caps are on 
duty in the streets. They carry loaded rifles with an air 
of indifference and lounge in doorways in somnolent 
attitudes. The weakest part of their attire lies in their 
footgear ; leather shoes are seldom seen in the city, and 
on a dark winter's afternoon I beheld walking down the 
muddy street one of these armed policemen, whose shoes, 
alas, were represented by a dainty pair of pale blue 
bedroom slippers. Most reputable shops possess a shrine 
to the god of wealth, and cautious proprietors see to it 
that the shrine shall not be neglected by offering a feast of 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 25 

pork on the 6th and the 15 th of the moon to all employees 
who have performed daily worship without fail. 

As the twilight hour approaches there rises a volume 
of smoke from every house, rich or poor. The cooking 
of the evening meal (shao ye fan) has commenced. Up 
and down the darkening street one figure after another 
comes to the entrance of the house or shop, as the case 
may be, with a handful of lighted incense sticks. In the 
shops this duty is relegated to the youngest apprentice. 
He bows to heaven, and bows to earth three times over, 
places the incense sticks before the threshold and departs. 

The elegant phrasing and handsome lettering of the 
mottos and scrolls is a great feature in all shops of any 
pretensions in this literary land. There is an inner mean- 
ing to some only understood by the initiated. " May 
you have great joy and good business " is not a polite 
wish to the passer-by, but a sign by which men may know 
that the shopkeeper in question is a regular subscriber 
to the beggars' guild. 

" Neither young nor old cheated here," deceives 
nobody, but the inscription " Truly not two prices " is 
an outcome of contact with Western standards, and is 
gradually being taken seriously. 

Though this is nominally a city of the second rank, it 
is of considerably more importance than the cities of the 
first rank in the neighbourhood. The Tsien-tang river, 
which divides at this point, brings with it much trade, and 
though the principal industries of the place, the curing 
of hams and the manufacture of tinfoil money for the 
dead in the next world, do not sound especially lucrative, 
the citizens are distinctly prosperous, the good wages 



26 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

and plentiful food have tempted many from other 
provinces to settle in the neighbourhood. 

Three days at the outside, down the river, brings one 
to Hangchow, the provincial capital, and the Chekiang 
railway, which " some day " is to run through the whole 
province. Thence a short train journey lands one in 
Shanghai, the hotbed of things foreign, and " nearly 
the same as the outside kingdom man's own country." 
No wonder then that the " City of the River Orchid " 
shows traces of Western influence. 

In the main streets one can count by the half-dozen, 
shops of cheap foreign oddments varying from skeins of 
Berlin wool, and pink and blue enamelled washing basins 
to looking-glasses and little girls' hair combs. The latter 
are much in favour just now with the boatmen and 
others for keeping in order the long straight tresses of 
coarse black hair, which have taken the place of the 
shaven heads and the queue. 

Foreign lamps are also much in request, and the 
Standard Oil Company is doing a thriving trade. Shops 
selling patent medicines are the most inviting of all, but 
are seldom overburdened with customers. Our own 
experience amongst these tidy well-filled shelves threw 
some sidelights on the situation. 

The enterprising young shopman was not slow to 
embrace such an excellent opportunity of acquiring a 
little first-hand knowledge of the drugs that he wished 
to sell. One bottle after another was brought to the 
counter with a request that we would graciously con- 
descend to translate the labels, and give some directions 
as to the value of the medicine and the approximate 
quantity to be taken at one time. 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 27 

Foreign hats for men and boys and babies, foreign 
umbrellas, under garments — sold for outside wear — are 
to be purchased in some of the up-to-date emporiums. 
Queer travesties of Western fashions crop up at times in 
these days of change, and in a city further south, one 
young dandy is occasionally to be met in the streets 
wearing a pair of French corsets by way of an outer 
wrap ! 

The busy thoroughfares in the " City of the River 
Orchid " literally hum with industry — this arises from 
the fact that in most cases the shop and the workshop 
are one. The bamboo workers, the carpenters, the iron- 
mongers, the coffin makers, the cotton wool carders are 
all hard at work making their stock-in-trade before the 
eyes of the passers-by. As to the food shops, that there 
should be "no deception, ladies and gentlemen," the 
cooking stoves have been pushed so far forward that 
they are more than half way out on the narrow pavement. 
Here, if he so wishes, the future purchaser may watch 
the concoction of the savoury dish he intends to buy, from 
start to finish. 

There are other trades of a more peaceful nature. 

The letter-writer sits at his table tracing beautifully- 
formed characters with his rabbit-hair brush on trans- 
parent paper for a customer who stands patiently waiting, 
and who apparently has no concern with the contents 
of the letter, which will be written in accordance with the 
approved pattern of these things. Inside the darkened 
precincts of a shrine, a fortune-teller has appropriated a 
lucky site for his table of books and papers. The change 
to the Gregorian calendar inaugurated by the Republican 
Government must, we think, have somewhat disturbed 



28 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

his calculations. In the old days, for instance, an uneven 
date was considered propitious, an even date equally 
unpropitious. Should a death unfortunately take place 
on the latter, the body must not be placed in the coffin 
till the following day and so forth. On inquiry, however, 
one fortune-teller assures us that the change has made 
no difference at all. " You pay your money and take 
your choice — either the new or the old." In the scroll 
shops, artists sit at their work within arm's reach of the 
passers-by — their paints enclosed in neat little card- 
board boxes, their brushes bristling like the quills of a 
porcupine, from a bamboo stand. 

The artists themselves are mostly engaged in painting 
portraits of the dead — painting even as the letter-writer 
compiled his letters according to time-honoured rules. 
Hence there is no attempt at a likeness — and, in all 
probability both in dress and in features, the departed 
relative of the family of Tang in the next lane is prac- 
tically the same as that of the family of Ba who died two 
hundred years ago. 

As we walk through the streets, we have an oppor- 
tunity of " seeing ourselves as others see us." 

" Look there at those two foreigners ! " ejaculated an 
old man. " They are as ugly as death." 

" Their eyes are like snails ! " said another, " and they 
are wearing snakes on their hats " (the snakes were 
twisted scarves). 

" That hat," rejoined a neighbour, " is enough to 
make any one ill with fright." 

These, alas, were not empty words. It appears that 
the child of the man who lives near the East Gate caught 
sight of that innocent hat a day or two ago. She cried 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 29 

with alarm, and would not be comforted and has been 
down with fever ever since. 

" Where do these foreigners put their rice," asked one, 
surveying the waist line of our English tailor-mades. 
" They are certainly not made the same way as we are." 

" They don't eat rice ! They eat beef." 

" Beef ! How can they get beef in this city ! " 

" Very true ! " agreed the other, " But one thing is 
certain, they do not eat rice, and their food costs them 
more to buy than ours does ! " 

In the " City of the River Orchid " it is a punishable 
offence to kill a cow. Not only would the flesh of the 
beast be confiscated by the police, but the offender 
would probably be imprisoned and most certainly fined. 
On one occasion by the gates of the police station we 
came across a goodly supply of this forbidden meat, and 
might for a moderate sum have purchased any quantity 
we pleased from the police in charge, but a certain air of 
antiquity about the already cut-up joints deterred us 
from accepting the constable's smiling offer. There 
were, however, ways by which beef could be bought 
independently of all police stations. 

At a large city a day's journey off by boat there lives 
a colony of Mohammedans, who, by paying a slight 
extra tax, earn the privilege of killing their own cattle — 
and occasionally at a village not far away Mohammedan 
beef appears in the market. 

During a long spell of dry weather the consumption of 
meat of any kind is often prohibited under penalty of a 
heavy fine. In the neighbouring city on the occasion of a 
long drought the city god was borne forth in state round the 
streets, and the usual proclamation issued forbidding the 



3 o CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

eating of flesh till the coming of the rain. Two men, who 
had worked themselves into a mad frenzy, headed the 
procession, holding between them a great wooden fork 
with which they rushed along blindly as though impelled 
by some hidden force. The fork, they said, would divulge 
to them the dwelling place of any who had had the 
temerity to disobey the order, but the fork, as the foreign 
teacher pointed out at the end of the day, was unreliable, 
for had it not led them to the house of his neighbour, a 
strict vegetarian, and passed by his own door where a 
goodly joint reposed upon the dinner table. 

On the lines probably of the old saying that " pro- 
viding is preventing," every one carrying an umbrella on 
these occasions will be punished. 

One often hears even in inland China that " every- 
thing " has doubled and trebled in price during the last 
twenty years, but even so, the cost of living in this " City 
of the River Orchid " is absurdly low. 

The " outside kingdom folk " with their expensive 
tastes for beef, soap, and furniture, and other luxuries, 
are looked upon as wildly extravagant or extremely 
wealthy. 

Had one the digestion not of an ostrich but of a 
Chinese — did one possess his unusual ideas of comfort, 
his peculiarly insensitive olfactory organs and his im- 
perviousness to disease, caused, so it is said, through 
constant though unintentional inoculation of disease 
germs — one could live very comfortably on the income of 
Goldsmith's parson. 

Six or seven pounds a year would cover the rent of a 
family residence, three or four shillings a month would 
pay the wages of a good cook, provided of course that 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 31 

he were not required to " eat his own rice." For four- 
pence or fivepence a day and his food one could even 
secure the services of a house tailor. Rice, the staple 
food, is about id. a pound, eggs run to six or seven a 
penny, an oil-skin umbrella costs a few pence only, and a 
pound of charcoal to burn in one's foot stove can be 
bought for one halfpenny or very little more. 

For the rest (in an orthodox Chinese household) a little 
slave girl, or more than one, is purchased for a mere 
pittance to help with the house work, and in poorer homes 
there will probably be a " Sun Bride " — a mere child still, 
for whom a small sum of money has also been paid, and 
who is destined to become the wife of the son of the house. 

These Chinese children grow up in an adult world. 

If our Western children have too many toys, the 
Chinese children have too few. In these days we do too 
much possibly for our own small folk — making them less 
and less inclined to help themselves — but in China the 
fault is on the other side. The child must adapt himself 
as best he can to the " grown up " people around him. 
No " clouds of glory " hover over his early days. No one 
takes any pains to hide from him the ugly side of life. 
He soon gets to understand the hidden meaning of much 
that goes on in the home and in the street, and to know 
that things are never exactly what they seem to be. 

The neighbour's cat, for instance, is not just a simple 
cat, but a valuable possession costing possibly 700 cash 
— and instead of tying it to a turtleshell as people usually 
do to prevent it from escaping — they have rendered it 
more or less stationary by the weight of a heavy dust pan 
attached by a cord to its neck. 

The snake and the cat grieved not at the death of 



32 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Buddha, and therefore they are the only animals, say the 
Japanese, that may not enter Paradise. 

When Chinese cats die they are never buried, but 
encoffined in an open basket, are hung out in some 
exposed place, preferably from the top of the city wall as 
food for the birds, not from any idea of giving the birds a 
chance to pay back old scores, but merely to avoid calling 
down the wrath of the earth gods, who would deeply 
resent the burial of a cat underground. Cats are uncanny 
creatures and when a death takes place in the household 
a prudent Chinese family will send the house cat to a 
neighbour's for the time being, or see that it is kept out of 
mischief, for cats have been known, so say the super- 
stitious, to jump on a corpse causing it to come to life 
again — whether temporarily or permanently history does 
not relate. 

In the silkworm season, when rats are more than 
usually dreaded, cats go up in value, and keepers of silk- 
worms, who have no cat of their own, will probably 
appropriate some one else's. Its owner is soon on its 
track, but, instead of demanding its return, he will adopt 
the more oriental way of standing within ear-shot of the 
thief and all his neighbours, cursing lustily, which methods, 
curiously enough, are usually crowned with success. 

In this land, where nothing goes by its right name, 
there are many ways by which allusions are made, to 
which, luckily, we " foreigners " are often sublimely 
unconscious. It would require one well versed in 
Chinese ways to understand by the words " it is raining " 
pronounced aloud on a perfectly fine day, that " foreign 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 33 

devils " (foreigners) are passing by, the idea being that 
when it rains devils are apt to come out into the open ; 
hence the initiated realise at once the meaning con- 
veyed, and no offence is given. 

Should an antagonist wish to utter imprecations in 
our hearing, he may possibly resort to the more polite 
method of sharpening a knife with great zeal as we pass, 
signifying the pleasure it would give him to see one 
decapitated or otherwise uncomfortably disposed of. 

This is a land of signs and symbols, and a clenched 
fist saves the trouble of saying the word that is always 
best left unsaid — the word death, the connection in 
this case being that as one comes into the world with a 
closed and empty hand even so does one finally leave it 
again. 

Seeing is believing, so hopes the man who has the 
" wooden cats " for sale — in other words, the rat traps — 
and in the sample specimen dangling from a hook a poor 
terrified rat is crouching, miserably wincing at being 
thus turned into a public example. But this treatment 
is kindness itself to that which is accorded occasionally 
to the " house deer " — as rats are sometimes called — • 
and to nail a poor live captive with one paw to the wall 
as a warning to its companions, is a custom that commends 
itself to many an unimaginative son of Han. 

A padoga on the summit of a low hill at the back of 
the city controls its good luck. One gets another impres- 
sion of these crowded streets when seen from this point 
of view, and one could almost imagine that a monster 
chessboard, with squares of black and white, some 
chipped, some pushed out of gear, lay spread out by the 
river side. 



34 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Not far from the gates of the city temple, at the end of 
one of the narrow walled streets in a fashionable resi- 
dential quarter, there lives one of the wealthiest families 
in the city — the family of Wang. The son and heir — a 
sleepy youth with projecting eyes and heavy eyelids, 
whose finger nails, a quarter of an inch long, were bor- 
dered with black — had suddenly developed a wish to 
acquire a knowledge of " foreign words." True, he had 
never " read books " (i.e., studied) to much purpose, 
had done little else but eat and sleep ; but in these days 
of the new Republic, even the " gilded youths " of the 
" City of the River Orchid " felt inspired to make an 
effort of some kind to keep up with the times, and to be 
able to speak this " fashionable " English language was, 
at least, a big step in the right direction. 

Wang's father was dead, and he was the only son, and 
possessed, moreover, the doubtful blessing of two 
mothers — his own mother and his stepmother. It was 
said, however, that the two women, now that the " bone 
of contention " in the shape of Wang senior had been 
removed, lived together in peace and harmony. They 
were not the only women in the house either, the " mean 
one of the inner apartments," young Wang's wife, made 
up the trio, but she was often ailing, and of no great 
account in. the household, except as the mother of the 
baby. 

When the " outside kingdom folk " called at the house 
they very naturally asked to see the little Wang, but 
those in authority looked doubtful. He was delicate, 
the sight of us might be too great a shock. As a con- 
cession the small personage was brought to the door of 
the stuffy windowless chamber in which he was enclosed 



THE CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID 35 

and shown to us from afar. On no account must the 
visitors come near enough to frighten him, as then 
assuredly he would burst out crying and lose one of his 
precious souls. 

The Chinese themselves are always careful never to 
call a small child from one room into another, as popular 
belief maintains that the demons, hearing his name, will 
rush through the open door with evil intent. 

My pupil, Wang, dressed handsomely in fur-lined 
brocade, appeared on the scene morning by morning 
with a boy's little satchel under his arm, and two hand- 
some rings of huge pearls and gigantic sapphires on his 
fingers. With him came a young relative, a bright 
open-faced youth of eighteen or so, called Lu, who, 
anxious to follow supposed foreign fashions, had had 
inscribed in English letters on a broad gold ring the two 
words " Mr. Lu." 

Young Wang and his friend paused every now and 
then in their laborious reading of an English book for a 
prolonged yawn. In China this is no breach of etiquette. 
The yawns were harmless in comparison to my other 
trial, which arose from the fact that both the young men 
were afflicted with permanent colds in the head, and 
were unaccustomed to such commonplace alleviations 
as pocket handkerchiefs. 

The 5,000 rules of etiquette have apparently nothing 
to say on the subject. One could not but wish that 
these wealthy youths had spent a little less money on 
pearls and a trifle more on handkerchiefs. 

After several weeks of somewhat halting progress 
Wang and Lu ceased to come for some days. No 
message of any kind was sent, no excuse made. At last 



36 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

a neighbour happened casually to remark that young 
Lu had gone to his ancestral home five miles away to 
celebrate the birth of his son, and there would be a wine 
feast and other festivities in honour of the event. 

So then my pupil was not a schoolboy, as I had fondly 
supposed, but a married man of some years standing. 



CHAPTER III 

The Black Smoke 

Day by day for twelve months or more, those who 
lived in the " River Street " watched Ba Giao Si as she 
passed by on her way to and from the Yamen. Though 
they must have grown accustomed to the sight, they still 
looked after her with wonderment, and remarked on her 
great ability, and on the strange doings at that place of 
dark repute at which she paid such frequent visits. It 
had for them that peculiar interest that we all feel 
towards something with which sooner or later we our- 
selves may become more intimately acquainted. 

" Ai Ya," said the bamboo worker, " the buckwheat 
seller was here this morning. He had just been to the 
Yamen prison to sell cakes, and he tells me that two 
more were caught yesterday and that one was Sing Fan 
from the cloth maker's place." 

" Sing Fan ! he must be worth several ' wan ' (tens of 
thousands). They will want a big fine from him." 

" He was eating the ' black smoke ' (smoking opium) 
when they caught him. He has eaten it now for many 
years." 

" Many years ! I should think so. His age is not 
light. He must be eighty or more." 

" I have heard," said another, " from my cousin's son, 
who is a policeman, that a new proclamation has been 
sent from the capital, stating that at the beginning of 



38 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

the new year, all eaters of the black smoke, who per- 
sistently refuse to amend their evil ways, will be shot 
dead like common criminals." 

" These must be idle words." 

" Alas ! It is not so," said one who spoke with 
authority. " I, with my own eyes, have seen the 
proclamation. Those under forty will be shot, those over 
forty will be deprived of their possessions and condemned 
to a long term of imprisonment." 

" Surely, then, it is better to go to the Yamen as thy 
son's father-in-law has done, and stay for fourteen days, 
eating the foreigner's medicine, which they say is so 
good that it takes away all craving for the black 
smoke." 

" Buh tso, buh tso ! " (you are right, or as the Chinese 
put it — you are not wrong). 

" If one goes oneself, there is no fine. If one is caught 
by the soldiers, the fine is heavy, and in any case one 
must stay as a prisoner and eat the foreign medicine." 

" I have heard," said the first speaker, " that Ba Giao 
Si has a strange looking foreign needle which she drives 
into one's flesh, and that she knows from the colour of 
the blood which flows from the wound whether one's 
words are true words." * 

The Opium Refuge, as it is called — in reality a kind of 
Chinese Marshalsea prison — occupies some ramshackle 
buildings within the gates of the Yamen. The giant 
figures of the two famous generals of the Tang dynasty, 
painted in brilliant blues and reds on the outer doors, 

* In doubtful cases a drop or two of the patient's blood dissolved in a solution 
of apomorphine and alcohol will show the presence or absence of opium. 



THE BLACK SMOKE 39 

protect the place from evil. The picture of a squirming 
dragon in green and white and blue over the inner doors 
assures good luck. The inner court, squeezed in among 
the low-roofed buildings with greasy walls, and windows 
of torn paper, is Ba Giao Si's consulting room. The dingy 
rooms, with a four-post curtained bed in each, are, some of 
them, occupied by sundry minor officials connected with 
the opium work, and one has been turned temporarily 
into a small dispensary, whilst the dingiest and darkest 
of them all are assigned to " paying patients " — in other 
words, men of means who have come on their own initia- 
tive to break off the drug habit under the care of the 
foreign doctor and her medical assistant, the worthy 
Bao Djen. 

At one of the tables a bespectacled, moon-faced man of 
scholarly appearance sat writing. He looked after us a 
little wistfully. 

" He is a man who has taken a very good degree " said 
Ba Giao Si. " He is in prison for debt, not on account of 
opium smoking. He owes an immense sum. I forget 
how many thousands of dollars." 

I expressed surprise. 

" Not that the debt is anything to do with him per- 
sonally. It is his brother who should have been arrested, 
but the brother cannot be found, so they have taken this 
man instead who, of course, is perfectly innocent." 

" But surely the brother " I began. 

" Well it is said that even the brother is not wholly 
responsible, but that the debt was really contracted some 
two hundred years ago and has accumulated by degrees 
to such immense proportions that the creditors have 
resolved to go to law in the matter ! " 



40 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Alas ! for the innocent victims of a misdeed committed 
by an unknown ancestor some two hundred years ago ! 
No wonder the poor bespectacled scholar looked depressed. 

From the tiny paved courtyard, which was partly 
occupied by washstands more or less in use, we passed 
under a crumbling archway, and through a series of 
tumbledown sheds, the walls of which were black with 
grease and the floors brown with slime. One had to pick 
one's way in the dim light. An old copper-like stove 
presided over by the kitchen god — a little smouldering 
charcoal and a few pots and pans — suggested an impro- 
vised kitchen, which, alas, ended in a rubbish heap and 
refuse indescribable. A door in the wall and a flight of 
battered stone steps led down into the " Marshalsea " 
prison. The main building was open on one side to the 
outer air, or as much of the outer air that could be got 
into a minute court the size of a small chicken-run closely 
surrounded by buildings. 

On those winter afternoons of our first visits the light 
was dull, the air cold and raw, the mud floor glistened 
with moisture. One or two opium patients, more 
fortunate than the rest, carried a fire basket, one or two 
were huddled up under their quilts on beds of straw. In 
a niche of the stained and crumbling wall stood a bearded 
idol with black unseeing eyes, " gazing " into space. 
The prison was crowded with men, young and old, 
and three or four women. The latter were chaperoned 
by the jailor's wife, a hard-featured little woman busily 
engaged in culinary operations at a charcoal fire in a 
corner of the " chicken-run." 

They were not all prisoners these people, some were 
relatives, some friends, who'had come to " hsi " (play ! ). 



THE BLACK SMOKE 41 

The cake seller had also appeared on the scenes and was 
doing a brisk trade. One or two savoury meals were in 
progress, and, on the whole, in spite of the dirt, the dis- 
comfort, the unspeakably dreary circumstances in which 
they found themselves, a general air of satisfaction seemed 
to prevail. 

This invincible cheerfulness in such distressing sur- 
roundings surely argues a defect of imaginative power. 

One or two took another and more natural view of 
the situation, amongst them the well-to-do octogenarian 
from the cloth firm, standing there in his fur-lined gown 
holding his long tobacco pipe in slender hands, the finger- 
nails of which were nearly an inch in length, and grace- 
fully curved ; but " money covers many sins," as the 
Chinese proverb has it, and after a few days engaged in 
" talking price " a satisfactory conclusion was arrived at 
between the assessors of the fine and the assessed, and 
Sing Fan was to be once again set at liberty. " He must 
continue to eat the black smoke " he said, and Ba Giao Si 
agreed that to give it up at such an advanced age would 
assuredly cost him his life. Long experience had made 
her an expert in these matters. During the last twenty 
years many had been permanently cured under her treat- 
ment, and during this present year over a thousand had 
passed through her hands — including the " Marshalsea 
prisoners " and a certain number of private patients in 
an opium refuge of her own. The latter, by paying fees 
of a few dollars, underwent the so-called Malay cure,* 
and had the good fortune to escape many of the un- 

* A preparation made from the branches and leaves of a species of combretum 
grown in the Malay peninsula, which, when prepared and administered, accord- 
ing to certain directions, usually effects a cure in fourteen days. 



42 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

pleasant complications from which few of those who 
break off opium in the usual way are immune. 

The Government authorities, not unnaturally, declined 
the extra expense of the Malay treatment in the case of 
the patients in the prison, the majority of whom had 
been brought in by the police. 

There was no doubt that in this part of the country, at 
least, the authorities were in earnest in their efforts to 
suppress the opium trade. All pipes, lamps, boiling pots, 
all that belonged to an opium smoker's paraphernalia 
were confiscated by the authorities. In the course of a 
few hours every opium den along the river front was 
done away with, and on the first month of the second 
year of the " People's Kingdom," a public burning took 
place, not only of confiscated utensils, but of packet 
after packet of the drug itself. 

Similar measures had been adopted in other places, but 
rumour whispered that some of the opium burnt was only 
brown sugar, just sufficiently " flavoured " to afford the 
orthodox smell. 

In the "City of the River Orchid,"* however, there were 
to be no half-measures. On the sunny terrace in front of 
the Government school, coolies had been coming and 
going half the morning carrying material for the bonfire, 
pipes ornamented with chased silver, inlaid with jade 
and ivory and other costly luxuries of the eater of the 
" foreign dirt " were to be turned into fuel, but more 
valuable than all these things were the packages of 
opium — hundreds, nay, possibly thousands of pounds' 
worth. The " knower of affairs," as the official is called 
in these republican days, lent his somewhat shabby 

* Province of Chekiang. 




THE " CITY OF THE RIVER ORCHID." (STEPS ON WHICH PUBLIC EXECUTIONS 
USED TO TAKE PLACE.) 




A PUBLIC BURNING OF CONFISCATED UTENSILS AND OPIUM PIPES. AND PACKET 
AFTER PACKET OF THE DRUG ITSELF. 



THE BLACK SMOKE 43 

presence to the scenes. In old times he would have 
arrived in state in his official chair with his many bearers, 
his Yamen runners in scarlet silk and black velvet, the 
red umbrella borne aloft and other official insignia, but 
these days are over (for the nonce). Shorn of his gay 
trappings the " knower of affairs " wore a foreign felt 
hat, like any ordinary citizen, and the plainest of Chinese 
gowns, for silk is tabooed just now. He covered with an 
air of haste the consciousness of his own lack of dignity 
and the difference which these things make in the eyes of 
the masses, who hardly realise, as yet, that " officials are 
officials for a' that." 

Finally the signal was given to set the fire alight. 
Already the mass of fuel had been drenched in paraffin, 
and in an instant the flames sprang up higher and higher, 
scorching the white face of the " spirit wall " in the 
background. 

The people gazing with bovine expression fell back 
because of the sparks and the fierce heat. They looked 
neither glad nor sorry. These were momentous days, 
for China was rising slowly with her massive strength to 
fight against a curse of long years standing. 

Meanwhile the people kept their thoughts to them- 
selves or passed on their way smiling. Could it be as 
some were not slow to whisper, that not a few of these 
worthy citizens, apparently so obedient and amenable 
were still the rulers of the situation. The Yamen captives 
were by no means representative of the opium smokers 
of the city. Some of the worst offenders, being rich and 
influential, could more easily escape detection, or, as a 
last resource, silence detectives. 

Our strangely cheerful prisoners had doubtless methods 



44 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

of alleviation of which we knew nothing. Now and again 
some ill-laid scheme leaked out. Sticks of sugar cane 
were discovered which had been scooped out and filled 
with opium ; hollow bamboo poles of sedan chairs had 
been stuffed with the forbidden drug, and even the ears of 
pigs had been utilised as receptacles. 

The other day a new kind of pill was offered for sale in 
the prison, the ingredients of which consisted of soot, 
yellow ochre, buckwheat flour, salicylate of soda and 
Buddha's fingers (a species of lemon, valued for its scent), 
not that one could expect much from such an unpromising 
mixture. 

Last week a new proclamation appeared on the city 
walls, issued by an official in connection with the " Opium 
Suppression Bureau," advising all men to take warning 
by the " terrible fate " of India. 

" The Indians," so ran the document, " did not do 
anything but cultivate opium. Some smoked it, some 
dealt in it, all apparently living a dreamy fool's life, until 
the British invaded and destroyed their country without 
their feeling the blow. Don't you think it a pity ? See 
the red-turbaned policemen in Shanghai, they are among 
their best class people, so they have been chosen to come 
here and do the slaves' work. The rest stay in India and 
endure tyrannical treatment from the British, being even 
worse treated than hogs and dogs. ... If you do not 
mend your ways, I, your brother, can love you no longer, 
and endure you no longer ; the only alternative will be 
to send for a strong military force to arrest and punish 
you to the utmost extent of the law " — and so forth. The 
" brother " was evidently much in earnest, but even the 
worthy " Bao Djen " laughed at his description of India. 



THE BLACK SMOKE 45 

Bao Djen had risen from the rank of a domestic servant 
to that of a useful dispenser and medical assistant. There 
are many of the same ilk in China to-day, young men of 
undoubted ability but few educational advantages, who, 
alas, are seldom content to remain in a subordinate 
position, but with the conceit and the courage of ignorance 
set up as full-blown " foreign " doctors in places where 
there are none to dispute their claim, and for a time at 
least make a fat living with the " golden thanks " (the 
doctor's fees) that come their way. The patients, fortu- 
nately, are not easily killed, and can drink with impunity 
a mixture made up of castor oil, quinine, sulphuric acid 
and eye lotion — a favourite prescription of one of these 
self-made doctors. 

Bao Djen, however, much looked up to at the Opium 
Prison, is beginning to have a great opinion of his own 
powers. 

Ba Giao Si pointed out to him the other day that long 
finger nails, supposed to indicate immunity from hard 
work, were, in these enlightened times, both ridiculous 
and insanitary, whereupon Bao Djen gave a superior 
smile and made answer : — " We doctors find them 
exceedingly convenient," and forthwith used his longest 
for measuring out a dose of quinine. 



CHAPTER IV 

A Chunk of Raw Ginger 

Just round the corner of the tiny lane three feet wide 
at the back of our house, lives the second son of the 
family of Tang. He has taken a literary degree and 
" wears good clothes and eats a basin of good rice " (is 
well off). He is, moreover, the happy husband of two 
wives, who, marvellous to relate, live together in perfect 
amity, and now, at last, he has become the proud father 
of a " pearl in the palm " (a son). Thanks greatly to 
Ba Giao Si's skill and kindness this new arrival seems 
likely to live and thrive, whereas for many years now, 
with the exception of one girl, who, being a girl, hardly 
counted, the baby Tang's have carried out word for word 
the old French saying : 

" On entre, on crie et c'est la vie, 
On crie, on sort et c'est la mort." 

The happiest person in the house at the birth of the child 
is wife number one, who by the way is getting on in 
years and is not the baby's mother. Some seven or eight 
years ago father Tang, in despair of ever having a boy 
of his own, purchased some one else's, Deh En by name, 
and was bringing him up as the son and heir of the house, 
but even Deh En, who was of course too young to fully 
appreciate the situation, reflected in his smiling face the 
satisfaction of the rest of the household, and assisted in 
the hanging up of the chunk of raw ginger over the main 



A CHUNK OF RAW GINGER 47 

entrance in token of a birth in the family. The Tang 
house, like many other houses of the well-to-do, showed 
few signs of prosperity. That " order is heaven's first 
law " is a truth very imperfectly understood in China, 
and one is often appalled at the dirt, the accumulation 
of rubbish, and the ill-regulated light and air of these 
Chinese homes. The guest hall where we sat in state was 
open to all the winds of heaven, the mud floor was very 
little warmer than the street outside, and not much 
cleaner. A brown hen of inquiring nature was prying 
about for a lost crumb, and dust lay thickly on all the 
lower limbs of chairs and tables. Sayings from the 
classics inscribed on red paper and pasted on the walls 
gave the only touch of colour. There were no cosy corners, 
no armchairs, no possibility of a fire. The elderly wife 
rested her pinched feet on a wicker basket filled with 
smouldering charcoal. She seemed in high spirits, and 
chuckled contentedly over her rival's child, calling it all 
the pet names she could think of, such as " little louse " 
and " tiny dog." 

In the darkened room round the corner the mother was 
" doing well " on a tonic of walnuts and brown sugar. 
Outside in the guest hall there was too much air — in the 
bedroom there was too little — and hardly any light at all, 
for windows in an outside wall of a bedroom are, of all 
things, unlucky. If there should happen to be one, care 
must be taken to keep it closed and covered, otherwise 
the demons would rush in and try their best to destroy 
a boy baby, though in all probability would pay no 
attention to a girl. 

Very little air indeed could get through to the occupant 
of the bed, which was heavily curtained round with blue 



48 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

hangings. It was a handsome bedstead with a canopy 
of wood richly carved and gilded, and absorbing one entire 
end of the room. Round the walls dark wood cupboards 
and piles of red lacquer boxes, bundles, baskets, pots and 
crocks and rubbish of all descriptions left little of the 
floor space unoccupied. 

Master Tang was still young enough to display the 
" racial mark " to advantage — a black bruise near the 
end of the spine — traces, say the ignorant, of a recent 
chastisement administered by the goddess in the other 
world " to speed the parting guest." It is to be seen on 
almost every Chinese baby in the first days after birth. 
Baby, however, in those first weeks of his existence is 
seldom, if ever, bathed, and scarcely ever on view except 
in full dress. One marvels that his delicate skin is not 
rubbed red and raw by the coarse garments — adult 
clothes in miniature — in which he is clad. A long dark 
skirt is added to this weird costume, which is turned up 
over the feet and tied round the tiny mite much as one 
would wrap a parcel in paper. 

A foster mother (the luxury of the well-to-do in China) 
had been procured for the new arrival, a rosy-cheeked, 
young woman with bright " boot button " eyes. On one 
occasion, having been sent with her charge to ask medical 
advice of Ba Giao Si, she sat ruminating in bovine fashion 
while the " teacher sister " held the busily screaming 
baby. It was, therefore, somewhat unexpected when, 
at the moment of leave taking, the phlegmatic creature, 
despite the fact that the baby was safely back again in 
her arms, turned hastily calling eagerly to the little one 
to follow, for, alas, one of his souls had escaped with the 
falling tears 1 



A CHUNK OF RAW GINGER 49 

Those who have been unfortunate in the rearing of a 
family, or whose baby may happen to be weakly, look 
round amongst the neighbours for a strong mother of 
healthy boys, who will be asked to adopt the child as her 
" dry son." This implies no responsibility on the part of 
the adopted mother. It is hoped, however, that as she 
is evidently a person " born under a lucky star " a share 
of the good health enjoyed by her own children may fall 
to the lot of the child whom she has consented to look 
upon as her " dry son," although she may have little or 
nothing to do with him from one year's end to the other ! 

Whilst the Tang family rejoiced over their good 
fortune, the wife of the prosperous owner of the bamboo 
shop, at the corner of the big street, bewailed her ill luck, 
weeping sadly as she caressed her new-born baby, for it 
was a girl, and there were two already, and this one she 
knew she would not be allowed to keep. The Po-Po 
(mother-in-law) had pronounced its doom without a 
moment's hesitation. They would not kill the child, no, 
but just let it die, and a hundred cash (about z\d.) to a 
beggar would settle the rest. There need be no more 
expense, no more trouble, and the young mother could 
bestir herself again and make herself useful in the house. 
Had she given birth to a son, well then, of course, a little 
care and rest would have been necessary, but as matters 
stood, it was absurd on the face of it to lie in bed and 
pretend to be ill. 

Baby, fortunately for itself, did not take long to die, 
and wrapped in an old bit of matting the bundle was 
consigned to one of the " Flowery ones " — a member of 
the loathsome army of beggars — creatures with matted 
filth, clogged hair, covered with sores and dirt, who share 



So CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

with the dogs the privileges of scavengers in a Chinese 
city. 

The price agreed had been a hundred cash and the 
place of burial suggested, the " Kuh Tong Tah " (the 
tower of withered babes), but the " Kuh Tong Tah " 
to the beggar's knowledge was inconveniently full just 
now, the very opening through which the bundles were 
thrust was more than half blocked up with tiny limbs. 
Besides, the tower meant half a mile's walk or more 
across the fields. It would be less trouble and quite as 
efficacious to put his burden down on the bit of grave- 
strewn land outside the city wall, and give that high 
falsetto cry recognised by Chinese dogs as an indication 
that a scavenger is needed. Even if any one saw him the 
matter was of too common an occurrence to signify. The 
" respectable " woman who lived near the city gate 
through which the beggar would pass had openly 
admitted that she herself had had eleven children — all 
girls — and out of them all, ten were not " permitted to 
live." 

There is still another way of disposing of unwanted 
offspring. Unless one desires, however, to proclaim the 
matter on the housetops, it necessitates an expedition 
after dark through the labyrinth of black greasy lanes 
in the neighbourhood of the Yamen. Just inside an open 
doorway there stands both day and night a hooded 
basket, furnished with a few handfuls of straw, in other 
words the public cradle of a foundling hospital. As we 
passed that way the other day we saw the gleanings from 
the basket cradle, spread out on a quilt, like miniature 
mummies enveloped in shapeless wrappings. The two 
wee babies were weirdly still and silent as though they 



A CHUNK OF RAW GINGER 51 

realised that by some unlucky chance they had made a 
bad start in life. The caretaker and his wife and a large 
assortment of friends and relations appeared to use the 
" Nourish the Children Hall " as a kind of social club, 
but work was slack just now. Last week there had been 
eleven waifs, now there were only two. The plump young 
woman, who nursed them each in turn, assured us that 
she had also had charge of the eleven. Their absence 
from the scene suggested gruesome possibilities, but 
we were mistaken. Girl babies * had been much in 
demand of late, some to be turned into slaves, and some 
into embryo brides. Not only can these valuable assets 
be obtained, free of charge at the foundling hospital, but 
the wealthy citizens, who support the place financially, 
make a small allowance to cover present expenses. 

An important moment in the lives of all well-brought- 
up babies, during these enlightened times in the "City 
of the River Orchid," is the day of vaccination. The 
" heavenly flower disease " is especially dreaded in the 
second moon, and there is no season of the year when 
the country-side is entirely free from the scourge. 

Those who can obtain the services of the foreign 
doctor for the " sowing of the foreign pox " as they 
call it, consider themselves lucky. Not only is the 
foreigner's skill greater, but it costs less than that of 
their own countrymen, who, moreover, have an expensive 
custom of charging an extra fee should the child be a boy. 

One bright wintry afternoon we trudged forth to a 
village nestling amongst the trees at the foot of the hills 
where thirteen small patients were waiting to be vacci- 
nated. 

* The foundlings are almost Invariably girls. 



52 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The tiny serpentine paths, often little more than mud 
ridges, wriggled round the vegetable fields instead of 
across, in order to avoid the straight lines patronised by 
evil spirits. 

In the guest hall of a prosperous farm-house we sat 
down to wait until preparations for the momentous 
occasion had been made, for no Chinese baby, of any 
standing, may be vaccinated, unless first attired in the 
most costly garments of its baby wardrobe — the brightest 
coloured silk and velvet, the richest embroidery, satin 
bibs weighed down with embroidered bats and other lucky 
emblems — silken hats embellished by brass idols and 
tinkling bells, by tigers' faces worked in silk, and other 
preservatives from danger. 

The farmer's wife had evidently not expected her 
foreign guests. Other visitors had arrived before us — 
three middle-aged women who, with the youthful son 
of the house, a mere boy of twelve or fourteen, sat round 
the centre table, deeply engrossed in a game of cards. As 
one watched the flimsy slips of paper, very thin and very 
narrow, fluttering from the dealer's hand (a single pack 
contains 150) one realised the likeness that they still bear 
to the leaves of trees, of which the first playing 
cards ever known in China (and possibly in the world) 
are said to have consisted. 

Though the gains and losses paid in copper cash (about 
40 = id.) were of no large amount, our farm-house 
players were as intent on the game as any Monte Carlo 
gamblers, and seemed quite oblivious to our presence in 
the room. 

We sat and sipped our green tea and partook of hard- 
boiled eggs and melon seeds, and still no sign of the 



A CHUNK OF RAW GINGER 53 

thirteen small patients. They had been sent for, they 
assured us, and would soon be here. The winter's after- 
noon, however, was drawing in — we should be benighted 
unless we started back before long, but at this point an 
invitation arrived to go and drink tea and partake of 
" little heart " (confectionery) at another house in the 
village, where it seemed the babies in their gala clothes 
were assembled. 

Two out of the thirteen certainly were there, dressed 
in pink and scarlet, magenta, purple and blue and 
unadorned by idols and tigers, for the parents having 
" eaten the Christian religion " had lost their fear of 
demons. 

" Where are the others ? " we inquired. We had come 
all this way by especial request. W T hy this long delay ? 

The mystery leaked out at last ! The date was an 
even date — the day was unlucky. A baby vaccinated on 
an even date would surely die ! 

Ba Giao Si's medical reputation was great in the 
" City of the River Orchid " — so great that even the idol 
in a neighbouring temple was supposed to have recom- 
mended her services ! A patient suffering from an 
internal disease who had tried one after another of the 
native " medicine men " turned at last to the oracle in 
the temple for advice. The consultation resulted in a slip 
of paper on which the two words were inscribed : " North 
East." Starting off eagerly, though somewhat wonder- 
ingly, in that direction the sick man came in with a friend 
who solved the mystery. " North East I " he said, 
" that can be no other than Ba Giao Si's house. Her 
skill is great. If you go there one evening, you are well 



54 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

that same evening. If you go there in the morning, you 
are well that same morning." 

" Medicine cures the man who is not fated to die," say 
the Chinese. They are great lovers of medicine of all kinds, 
and though westerners recoil from some of the ingredients 
of native prescriptions, the strange efficacy of some, at 
least, is admitted without a doubt. The brains of a baby, 
for instance, baked slowly and carefully in mud have been 
known to cure an obstinate form of skin disease. Abbe 
Hue mentions a cure for deafness, derived from a plant 
that grows in the north of China, which restored the 
power of hearing to a patient whose case had been pro- 
nounced hopeless by " the doctors of four nationalities." 

Whether earth worms, rolled in honey and swallowed 
alive are really of any use in stomach disorders one would 
almost doubt, though they might serve indeed to bring 
matters to a crisis and thereby accelerate recovery. " I 
have no more of the mixture you had before," said the 
foreign doctor to a wishful patient. 

" That is of no importance ! " came the answer. 
" What I want now is some life-saving medicine." 



CHAPTER V 

The Phcenixes in Concord Sing.* 

It was a " four coat " cold day, as the Chinese say. We 
had ridden twenty " li " (nearly seven miles) in our sedan 
chairs, along the narrow paved paths through intermin- 
able fields of vegetables and fields of wheat, now and 
again passing a clump of white walled houses hedged 
around by the glossy-leafed camphor trees, and on, once 
more into the open country in the direction of the hills. 
There were few people about, and no sign of any festivity, 
but we had arrived, it seemed, at our destination. A turn 
in the path brought us within sight of the house, a farm- 
house,- large and substantial, surrounded by the usual 
bit of untidy " no man's land " which it never appears to 
be anybody's business to keep in order. 

So cold and comfortless was the guest hall with its 
floor of hardened mud, and unclosed doors and draughty 
walls that the outer air was warm in comparison. We 
were, however, destined to spend the day in a still chillier 
abode. Our hostess, the bridegroom's mother, requested 
us to go up higher to the bridal chamber, a spacious 
apartment of an attic-like nature divided by frail parti- 
tions into bedrooms and store cupboards. Even a corner 
of the bridal chamber had been utilised as a receptacle 
for a stack of empty corn cobs stored away for fuel. A 
handsome four-post bedstead, carved and gilded, hung 

* A wedding air. 



56 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

with dark blue curtains, occupied almost the centre of 
the room, fortunately hiding the corn cobs from view, not 
that a Chinese housewife would consider useful things of 
that kind in any way out of place. 

In other particulars, the room was comfortably fur- 
nished according to approved ideas — a carved and gilt 
cupboard to match the bed, a dressing chest of dark 
polished wood, a mirror in a black frame inlaid with 
mother-of-pearl, and a goodly array of scarlet lacquered 
boxes, new and shining, containing probably the greater 
part of the bride's trousseau. 

We sat in state at a large table with our tea cups in 
front of us, face to face with two silken clad and much 
embarrassed bridesmaids, awaiting the arrivalof the bride. 
Above the bed curtains a tiny looking-glass for the 
scaring of demons, and a sprig of cypress and an iris leaf 
had been attached, the latter symbolic of good luck, the 
former of long life. 

A deafening cannonade of fire crackers announced the 
approach of the " Flowery Chair." Peeping from the tiny 
bedroom windows, each window was just large enough 
to admit of one adult head and no more, we watched the 
little procession advancing. The chair closely shrouded 
in scarlet hangings, richly embroidered with flowers and 
tigers and other lucky symbols, was preceded by small 
boys carrying lighted lanterns bobbing at the ends of 
poles — these were to guide the bride's spirit through the 
dark night to her new home, the idea being that our day 
is the spirits' night and vice versa. 

The crowd gathered round, but the invisible occupant 
of the chair must be taken from her scarlet box away 
from the public gaze. Our first vision of her was of a 



THE PHCENIXES IN CONCORD SING 57 

stiff " wooden " doll-like figure, enveloped in drapery, 
being borne up the stairs to the bridal chamber in the 
arms of a male relative of the bridegroom — (none of the 
girl's own relations are present on these occasions). 

Having deposited his immobile burden on the edge of 
the bed, he slowly removed the scarlet cloth that covered 
her head with two sticks of sugar cane, which he after- 
wards deposited on the top of the bed-canopy, allowing 
the scarlet cloth to dangle from the projecting ends, a 
symbol this of conjugal felicity. 

At this juncture the " woman of luck " (mistress of 
ceremony) took command of the situation, her chief 
qualification being that her husband was still living and 
her male children well and strong. 

While the bride washed her face and donned her wed- 
ding garments, the bridesmaids sat like wax figures 
showing as little interest in the proceedings as the bride 
herself. The " woman of luck " saw to the hair dressing, 
and artificial tresses were deftly wound into the girl's 
own long hair, and the whole twisted tightly into a big 
ball at the back of the head and " trussed " with golden 
skewers. With an expression of boredom, she rubbed 
white powder into her face till she looked more like a 
ghost than a bride, but rouge is contrary to etiquette at 
a wedding, and all the colour is concentrated in the 
clothes — the " Phoenix " crown and the crimson robes, 
the silk skirt of many coloured stripes, the tunic of 
brilliant scarlet silk adorned by a flapping collar of blue 
and black, magenta and gold, and embroidered with bats 
signifying joy, with butterflies representing happiness, 
with peaches that mean longevity, and peonies that 
stand for wealth. The whole costume was fitly sur- 



58 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

mounted by the Phoenix crown, an ungainly erection of 
golden tinsel sparkling with artificial rubies and sapphires, 
turquoises, pearls and other gems. A fringe of blue 
beads veiled the ghostly face, and rose-pink paper flowers 
filled in the cavity at the back of the crown. As the 
Chinese proverb has it : " Three-tenths is beauty, seven- 
tenths is dress." 

Though neither the bride nor the bridegroom were 
Christians, the grandfather and the mother had both, as 
the saying goes, " eaten the Christian religion," and had 
especially requested that a marriage service should be 
held. 

The little bride, therefore, attired in her finery and 
followed by her companions hobbled down the staircase 
with her bound feet and took her place by the side of her 
youthful and stony-faced bridegroom. 

After the final ceremony of the two wine cups, sipped 
by first the one and then the other, the " unloving " pair, 
who had never seen each other before, ascended the 
staircase followed by the " woman of luck " and her 
husband (who by the way are called " the happy couple"). 
They sat like two Dutch dolls on the edge of the bridal 
bed, paying no attention either to each other or any one 
else. A Chinese bride is compared to a dove, not because 
of her gentleness, but on account of her quietness and 
stupidity. We seized this seemingly propitious moment 
to offer our congratulations, taking care to address our- 
selves exclusively to the bridegroom, as the bride must on 
no account be included. The correct wish on these occa- 
sions is that the newly-married pair may be able to 
embrace both grandchildren and great grandchildren, 
but one should be careful not to look at the bridegroom 



THE PHCENIXES IN CONCORD SING 59 

while speaking, as this would mean appropriating his 
answering salute as especially intended for oneself ! 
One more ceremony must be observed before the hero of 
the day can effect his escape from the bridal chamber — 
the ceremony of " poached eggs in syrup." The bride 
merely looked at hers, but the bridegroom gulped his 
down much as one gulps down a dose of medicine, and 
without more ado, he disappeared just as a frightened 
rabbit might bolt into its hole. The feast was now the 
order of the day. 

Downstairs four tables (eight pairs of chopsticks to 
each table) had been prepared for the thirty-two male 
guests. Upstairs in the bridal chamber one table was 
sufficient for the rest of the party, and the bride herself 
must taste no food that day except surreptitiously. 
It was a long drawn-out penance that wedding feast in 
the chilly upper room on that cold winter's day. 

One course followed another, from dumplings stuffed 
with garlic and swimming in fishy gravy to dishes of 
sugared pork fat and bowls of dried fish the size of large 
pins which, alas, we mistook for shredded bamboo till the 
putrid flavour of the first cautious mouthful dispelled the 
delusion. " It is always well to have something in the 
mouth " goes the saying, and monkey nuts and melon 
seeds filled in the intervals between the courses, but the 
former were uncooked and less appetising than usual 
owing to the superstition that cooked monkey nuts (from 
a play on the Chinese words) offered at a marriage feast 
would mean still-born offspring ; the vermicelli was in 
strips several feet long suggesting the idea of long life to 
the married pair, and the rolls of steamed bread had been 
decorated with lumps of red, the festive colour. " Work 



6o CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

may be hastened," says the proverb, " but not food." 
The feast would continue on and of! for three days. 
Surely we would stop and "hsi" (play). Could we not, 
at least, stay till the next day ? 

At last, however, having sat patiently for some hours, 
and seeing no signs of a natural end to the repast, we 
forced our way out amidst loud protestations, and made 
our farewells. 

The white-faced bride still sat with bowed head and 
drooping mouth, looking as though some great sorrow 
had cast its shadow over her life. 

In this same province of Chekiang, a wedding of a very 
different character took place not long ago. 

In one of the wealthy houses of the place there lived 
an official family of some standing. The only son and 
heir, a student at the capital, had been for some time 
affianced to a girl, who, in approved Chinese style, had 
been introduced into the house as his future bride a few 
years before, and was being brought up, and trained in 
the way she should go by the lad's mother. Poor 
Precious Pearl ! From the first she and the Po-Po (mother- 
in-law) had failed to get on together. No wonder, said 
those who knew the family intimately, for she who held 
the reins of government was one of those overbearing, 
headstrong women who quarrel with every one and refuse 
to listen to reason. 

Many a dark story was whispered from ear to ear of 
the cruel treatment meted out to the future daughter-in- 
law, and when the end came, there were few who ex- 
pressed themselves surprised, all that they marvelled at 
was the means that the girl had chosen, an overdose of 
opium would have been an easier death to die, but to 



THE PHOENIXES IN CONCORD SING 61 

hang oneself, that must have taken courage indeed ! 
Precious Pearl was a girl in a thousand — every one said 
so, and while the miserable tyrant of a mother-in-law 
was condemned on all sides, no one had anything but 
praise for the girl. Great was the excitement to know 
what kind of revenge would be taken by the relatives of 
Precious Pearl, who, though they lived some distance off, 
appeared on the scenes with almost incredible speed. 

The son, the future bridgeroom, had been sent for by 
" lightning letter " (telegram) — so much was certain, 
and there were rumours that the wedding was to take 
place after all ! The bereaved family had insisted on 
this and had, moreover, claimed that the most costly 
presents imaginable should be purchased in readiness, so 
that the bridegroom's family should be put to every 
possible expense. They congratulated themselves also 
on the fact that the young man once legally married, 
albeit to a dead bride, would never again be able to offer 
the honourable position of " first wife " to any other. 
Not that this was of much consequence under the circum- 
stances, the expense of the whole affair was a far more 
weighty matter ,? to say nothing of the inevitable " loss 
of face ! " The wedding of a student to a corpse ! It 
was indeed, even in China, an unusual occurrence, so 
unusual, the wonder was^that the old " nai-nai " (woman) 
who lived at the gates had not insisted on more than a 
dollar for her part of the performance. It was she who 
held the body upright during the ^ceremony — the poor 
little dead body of Precious Pearl in the " Phcenix crown 
and crimson robe " of a most costly description. And 
the Po-Po ! Where was she ? All looked eagerly to see 
how this hard-tongued woman who, by her cruelty, had 



62 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

been the cause of this calamity, would bear up under so 
humiliating an experience, but they looked in vain. The 
Po-Po had disappeared, no one knew whither. For long 
after, the great house was left shut up and deserted. 

" Truly ! " said the wise ones, " the ancients were 
right and when the hen begins to crow, it is a sure sign of 
trouble." 

Not far from the scene of this tragic wedding another 
little embryo bride was living day by day a life of bitter- 
ness, and though the circumstances were well known to 
all around, in their Chinese fashion, no one raised a 
finger in active protest until too late. Then when the news 
spread from house to house that the child was dead, done 
to death by the unrestrained savagery of the future 
mother-in-law, the neighbours arose, clamouring for 
revenge. They would not refer the matter to the officials, 
it would be cheaper and more satisfactory to take the 
punishment of the woman into their own hands. They 
bethought them of a plan by which she should be made to 
suffer in more ways than one. With the dead body of the 
child fastened to her back, they compelled her to show 
herself, day by day, in the streets of the city that all 
might see her shame. 

New China despises many of the picturesque wedding 
customs as only fit for the " foolish people " who know 
no better. 

Not long ago a Chinese friend of mine was married in 
the " new style." " What is that like ? " I asked. 

" Oh, all the same as your way," she answered, " only 
no prayers," and as far as I could gather, very little 
else. 



THE PHCENIXES IN CONCORD SING 63 

In Shanghai the new time wedding procession is apt to 
combine, with rather ludicrous results, the old and the 
new. The soldier in semi- Western khaki-coloured uniform 
is the most typical figure of modern days in China, hence 
an up-to-date wedding party likes to be heralded by a 
troop of sham soldiers (in uniforms borrowed for the 
occasion), some of whom with drums and trumpets are 
playing martial airs. 

At one of these " military " weddings, the other 
day, a large and uncomfortable goose occupied with 
much trepidation the seat of honour in the " Flowery 
Chair." An unusual sight, in spite of the fact that 
a goose and a gander are held in China to be sym- 
bolic of conjugal affection and fidelity, and on the day 
of a wedding a punctilious bridegroom will sometimes 
present his father-in-law with one of these faithful 
birds in token of the fact that he will never marry 
again ! 

Some Shanghai brides foregoing the " Phcenix crown 
and crimson robes " and the silk cloth over the face as 
dowdy and old-fashioned, effect a compromise as regards 
the veil by wearing a fair of blue goggles during the wed- 
ding ceremony, and the white drapery of Western brides. 
Thereby (by means of the goggles) is kept up a semblance 
at least of the old custom which prescribed that the bride 
and the bridegroom must not see each other face to face 
until the wedding is over, a custom that needless, to say, 
is more and more on the wane, and which even in the old 
days, the bridegroom often succeeded in circumventing 
on the sly. 

Still, however, in country districts, things remain much 
as they were, and few have the temerity to neglect a 



64 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

comparison of the birthday card * and therefore run the 
risk of marrying a man born under the tiger to a woman 
born under the goat or vice versa, as this would mean 
certain disaster to the goat. At a betrothal ceremony, 
at which I happened to be present, the price of the pro- 
spective bride, a schoolgirl, had already been decided, 
and half the sum handed over in advance. A goodly 
array of silver dollars, and some handsome silk garments, 
and a pair of bracelets tied by a scarlet thread (sym- 
bolising the conjugal bond) for the bride were piled upon 
a large tray for all to see. Upon each dollar a strip of 
scarlet paper had been neatly pasted bearing the charac- 
ter of " Hsi " (happiness). The girl herself, of course, 
was not present, and the party consisted almost entirely 
of the male relatives of the respective families. " The 
choice that you deign to make of my coarse and stupid 
daughter to become the wife of your son," says the father 
of the future bride, " shows me that you esteem my poor 
and cold family more than it deserves " — and so forth. 
Rumours have reached them of the strange ways of 
the new woman in China in these days of the People's 
Kingdom. They shake their heads in horror. Did not 
the ancients say, that if we dispense with the decree of 
parents and the intervention of a go-between, and arrange 
marriages for ourselves we shall all be thieves. Does not 
the proverb maintain that " A go-between is as necessary 
as an axe to cut wood." 

* The hour, the day, the year of the child's birth, and the animal presiding 
over the year are registered on the card. 



CHAPTER VI 

" A White Affair " * 

The life of old Ah-Ba-La-Han the farmer in the village 
of " River Sand " had long been like a candle in the wind. 
His springs and autumns were many. Therefore, it was 
no surprise to hear that he had "passed out of this 
generation." 

For some years now the old man had been a Christian, 
and this morning his son appeared to borrow some 
funeral clothes and to invite the " teacher sister " to 
come to the funeral, which to suit our convenience should 
be put off till after breakfast instead of taking place at 
daybreak according to local custom. 

It was a bitterly cold morning, and the road was as 
the Chinese say, " like a sheet of jade," ice in the puddles 
and frost on the leaves of the vegetables in the fields, and 
overhead a leaden snow-weighted sky. 

There was no one about, only an old man wearing a 
crimson bonnet and a purple gown, hurrying along ahead 
of us by the path across the fields which, with its twists 
and turns, baffles the proclivities of evil spirits. 

At the house of the dead man a cheerful not to say 
hilarious party had assembled. 

As privileged guests we were invited into an inner 
chamber, presented with hard-boiled eggs and tea, and 
assigned seats close beside the coffin. The "golden 

* A funeral. 



66 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

peck " (coffin) was covered by a crimson pall, and rested 
on a bed of straw. 

Meanwhile, first one and then another completed his 
or her funeral costume in our presence. The eldest son, 
being the chief mourner, and his wife wrapped themselves 
in shapeless garments of hempen sackcloth with a head- 
dress, akin to a biretta in shape, made of a coarse hemp 
gauze, and adorned by pompoms of cotton wool suspended 
on wires, projected to a point below the eyes for the pur- 
pose of catching the tears. 

In these days, in true accordance with Chinese ways, 
the pompoms serve to represent the tears themselves. 
Mourning caps of unbleached calico were handed round 
to the men and boys, and all the other guests, ourselves 
included, were given " cloths to cry with," in other words 
a strip of unbleached calico, which when worn around the 
head provides the " complimentary " mourning necessary 
for the occasion. 

The more noise the better, apparently, at a Chinese 
funeral. A hubbub of voices arose around the coffin, as 
the bearers gathered together to carry it from the house. 
What with the levity of some, the garrulity of others, the 
scene was anything but peaceful. 

" Would the ' teacher sisters ' condescend to sit slowly 
for a while — all things are not yet ready ! " 

We waited, therefore, in the now deserted coffin 
chamber, till the beating of gongs, and the nasal squeak- 
ing of wind instruments suggested that proceedings had 
commenced, and then passed through the outer apartment 
where women were busy preparing the funeral feast. A 
black cow stood close beside the stove looking at the 
culinary operations with plaintive eyes, almost as though 



"A WHITE AFFAIR" 67 

its bovine mind appreciated that which the human beings 
had failed to grasp, namely, the solemnity of the occasion. 
Not that the outward jubilation of some of the mourners 
could be taken seriously, for as all men know that " to 
smile when speaking of the dead " is merely a matter of 
form demanded by time-honoured etiquette, and there 
are certain times when the loud cries of the " death howl " 
are prescribed. 

The appearance of the " teacher sisters " on the scene 
at this inopportune moment had taken our hosts by sur- 
prise. Old Ah-Ba-La-Han had particularly desired a 
Christian funeral, but Ah-Ba-La-Han's widow felt ill at 
ease in the matter, and insisted on observing one at least 
of the old rites. A few feet away from the coffin, a 
sacrifice to the dead was in progress, a volume of smoke 
and tongues of flame issued from a heap of burning straw, 
the same straw that had been in the dead man's room, and 
which was associated in the minds of the worshippers with 
one of the three souls, two at least of which were now 
disembodied. The mourners in their sackcloth wrappings 
knelt in a circle round the fire, their heads bowed upon 
the ground, to the sound of the wailing music, and the 
howling of mourners. In an instant, however, at a 
whisper that the " foreign teachers " had emerged from 
the house, the whole scene changed. Those kneeling 
sprang to their feet and even kicked apart the smoulder- 
ing straw with an air of contempt, and the loud wailing 
came to an abrupt end. 

Villagers, curious and talkative, gathered round as the 
burial service was read. Even some of the mourners 
allowed their attention to stray and discussed other 
matters in loud tones. Too much solemnity would 



68 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

evidently be looked upon as a bad omen. In the books 
of the ancients it is written that " in an affair of mourning 
there should be urgency." 

The procession started on its way at last, a disorderly 
troop, led by a motley company of ragged urchins bearing 
banners and gaily coloured flags, followed by a straggling 
stream of musicians beating gongs and clashing cymbals, 
and blowing on wind instruments which emitted a nasal 
sound like that of bagpipes played out of tune. Etiquette 
demands that all shall move forward at a quick pace. 
The coffin with its red pall, the crimson umbrella with 
floating streamers without which no funeral is complete, 
the mourners in their creamy sackcloth, the flags and 
banners, red and blue, formed a picturesque line of colour 
as the procession made its way by the tiny serpentine 
paths across the open fields. We found ourselves at last 
on the top of a high bank beside a heap of up-turned 
earth and steaming lime. A niche, just large enough to 
take the head of the coffin, had been scooped out in the 
hollow of the bank, and thickly sprinkled with lime and 
ashes. Eventually the earth would be built up in the 
form of a mound. Had Ah-Ba-La-Han not " eaten " the 
doctrine of the Christians it was now the moment for the 
ceremony connected with the ancestral tablet. The son 
or the sons would have knelt down crying forth " Father 
rise " — whereupon the soul of the dead man without 
more ado would have entered the wooden tablet placed 
for that purpose on the lid of the coffin. The " dotting 
of the tablet " performed by some person of note with a 
vermilion pencil later on would, so to speak, have ratified 
the first ceremony and made assurance doubly sure. In 
Ah-Ba-La-Han's case little more remained to be done. 



"A WHITE AFFAIR" 69 

The near relatives had brought with them mourning 
staves, bamboo sticks bound round with strips of paper, 
these they cast into the grave, with the straw ropes which 
they had worn round their waists. The eldest son and 
the widow flung off their sackcloth garments and the 
head-dress with the tear catching blobs just as an actor 
might hastily divest himself of his stage costume on the 
fall of the curtain. 

Were these things too to be buried with the coffin ? 
Hardly, for as this sackcloth mourning is often either 
borrowed or hired such a proceeding would have accorded 
ill with Chinese economy. 

Leaving our hosts to enjoy the funeral feast we started 
on our homeward way, followed by the loud entreaties of 
the widow to remain. 

Poor old Ah-Ba-La-Han, though still surrounded 
by kith and kin, had expressed himself more than 
once conscious of the fact that he had outstayed his 
welcome. 

Alas, for the filial piety of these modern days. It 
appears chiefly to take the form of ceremonious attention 
to graves and tablets, more as a safeguard than anything 
else, to prevent possible retaliation on the part of neglected 
spirits, or as propitiation to the dwellers in " the peaceful 
sunlight of the nine springs " (Hades) in the hope of 
favours to come. 

Not far from here lives a garrulous old lady, exceedingly 
unpopular in her own family. Not long ago her sons, 
driven to desperation by her long tongue and her large 
appetite, attempted to drown her in a pond, but the old 
lady, to the surprise of those concerned, reappeared on 
the scenes and since then, not unnaturally, the relation- 



70 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

ship between her and the rest of the household has been 
more than usually strained. 

Had the crime been proved, the delinquents would 
have paid the penalty of death by the " shameful and 
slow " process, but as it was, the whole affair passed 
unnoticed. 

In another case a poor old woman who had suffered 
terribly at the hands of her daughter-in-law put an end to 
her troubles by drowning herself in a pond at the back of 
the house. The officials came in state according to 
Chinese law, and held an inquest close to the spot where 
the death had taken place. Had the daughter-in-law's 
guilt been established not only would she herself have for- 
feited her life, but the tongues of the neighbours on either 
side would have been slit in two ! No wonder then that 
the case remained unproved and that the culprit escaped. 

Soon after Ah-Ba-La-Han's death, a near neighbour 
of ours passed over to the " happy vale of ancestral 
longevity " (died). Water for washing the corpse was 
purchased in the approved style from the dragon, to do 
which, a tea-cup was carried to the river side, and two 
copper cash thrown into the water whilst the little vessel 
was filled to the brim. 

Ablutions depending on the contents of a tea-cup sound 
somewhat superficial. In the land of the Celestials, how- 
ever, where the little so often stands for the much, and 
the symbol for the real thing, it is more than likely that, 
thanks to the tea-cup and the two cash, all the water 
used on this occasion was held to have been purchased 
from the dragon. Should it, for some reason, be impos- 
sible to avoid one of the ill-omened days, called in the 



"A WHITE AFFAIR" 71 

almanac days of " reduplication of death," there are 
several ways out of the difficulty, one being to catch a 
cockroach or bed bug or some other even more loathsome 
insect, to imprison it in a little box which is placed under 
the coffin and to call it a " substituting body." 

On the evening of the day, an uneven date for luck, on 
which the remains of the " Venerable one," handsomely 
attired in several new suits of " longevity garments," 
were placed in the coffin, any one passing by might have 
heard the loud voices of those who were busily engaged 
packing the luggage for the long journey to the " Great 
Beyond " — the " spirit clothes." 

" Look, then ! Here are your wedded gowns for the 
winter," one shouted at the top of his voice as though 
to a deaf person, and the bundle was plumped down 
inside the coffin with a thud. " There is no need to feel 
cold." " And here are your summer things ! Your fan, 
your ink slab and pencil, and look you — here in this 
corner is the money " — and long strings of silver ingots 
made of bright and shining tin foil were stowed inside the 
coffin, whilst still the high-pitched tones continued, ex- 
plaining this, that and the other to the spirit of the dead 
man, which though apparently afflicted with deafness 
had preserved, in some mysterious way, the power of 
sight. 

It was late in the evening and dark, but that of course 
was all in favour of the spirits whose day is our night. 

A speedy burial being considered a great mark of dis- 
respect, some months elapsed before the coffin was borne 
forth to the " city of old age." The lime and the charcoal 
plentifully strewn within, and in some cases an extra 
precaution in the form of a cement made of rice, vinegar 



72 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

and flour, make the occupied coffins, so often met with 
in a Chinese house, far less insanitary than one would 
suppose. 

It was a cold spring morning ; the " sun had not yet 
opened," as the serving-woman expressed it, when the 
wailing of mourners, and the squeaking of musical instru- 
ments announced that our friend's funeral was about to 
take place. On and off through the night, the Taoist 
priests had been hard at work keeping at bay the evil 
spirits by the beating of gongs and the chanting of 
prayers. In the road, between the low white houses and 
the grey river, the coffin was lowered to the ground, 
whilst the mourners in their sackcloth garments fell on 
their knees in worship, making " libation of spirits " in 
honour of the dead, and reading aloud to the soul in 
attendance, an address, explaining the arrangements 
that had been made — the position of the tomb, etc. — 
" like a white cloud, Thou hast passed away to go to the 
West, and it is in vain we look up to Thee ... so we 
have founded a nice city (i.e., grave) of which we venture 
to tell Thee some particulars," etc., etc., and the blue 
smoke from the burning incense, and the bonfire of paper 
in their midst, rose slowly upwards. On the top of the 
coffin a white cock, with tied feet, crouched miserably. 
To him, the " emblem of the sun," who by crowing at 
dawn frightens away the spirits of darkness, was entrusted 
the carrying of the soul to the grave, and with the sure 
instinct of the lower creatures, the bird seemed to know 
that, only by the shedding of its own life's blood could 
deliverance from this hypothetical burden be achieved, 
or possibly it may have been rendered drowsy by a dose of 



"A WHITE AFFAIR" 73 

spirits poured down its throat. A handful of grass lay 
beside the cock. A sod of turf would have signified that 
for a time at least the coffin must still remain above 
ground, but this was merely a handful of grass placed 
there for good luck. 

Later in the day a miniature paper mansion six feet 
by six for the dead man to inhabit in the next world 
stood by the front door of his former humble dwelling. 

To the smallest detail, all was complete, from the hand- 
somely carved bedsteads, the chairs and tables to a 
grand guest hall furnished in the approved style and the 
walls adorned by sayings from the classics on coloured 
scrolls. Over the floor " silver " and " gold " paper 
money had been scattered lavishly, and pot plants 
decorated the courts. Above the kitchen stove hung the 
shrine of the kitchen god, as important a functionary 
evidently in the land of the dead as in the land of the 
living. 

The whole consignment would be sent down to Hades 
that night by the fire messengers. 

Some cautious souls apparently make preparations 
beforehand, and a rich old lady, in this same province 
fearing that her relatives, after her death might seek 
to avoid expense, took the precaution of sending on 
ahead her servants, her sedan chairs, her chair bearers, 
her house and her furniture. The priests attended to the 
burning of these things which were one and all fearfully 
and wonderfully made of coloured paper, and saw that 
all was in order. The far-seeing old lady, however, 
bethought herself that when in course of time she, too, 
" returned to the excellent city " (died) she might per- 
chance find that her goods and chattels and even her 



74 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

tin-foil money had all been appropriated by some one 
else. To prevent, therefore, a catastrophy of the kind 
she had a life-sized effigy made to represent herself 
and sent it off post-haste to look after her netherworld 
property. 

Mr. Tang's aged mother " passed over " not long ago. 
She still lived in the family mansion at the other end of 
the city, a house of some pretensions with its lofty rooms 
dark with handsome woodwork richly carved, and cool 
paved courts one beyond the other. Ba Giao Si had been 
to see the old lady, but there was nothing to be done. 
She lay like a shrunken mummy hardly visible in the 
windowless bedroom behind the heavy hangings of the 
bed. To the numerous expectant relatives, full of talk 
and interest, who gathered round, she seemed a little slow 
in dying. When the elderly son arrived, he offered a piece 
of timely advice : " Come now " he said ! " You have 
lived your life with credit, and had better not try and 
stay any longer, but go quietly away ! " (" hao hao tib chu 
ba "), and not long after that she went. 

The seventh day after the event, Mr. Tang sallied 
forth to a feast of " ten tables of wine " to meet all the 
near relatives, and to shave his head and put on his sack- 
cloth mourning for the first time. " When old folks die, 
the rest feed high," goes the adage. Every seventh day 
for forty-nine days there will be still another feast, 
attended by the chief mourners, who will all be wearing 
sackcloth garments over their ordinary clothes. 

The family is well off, and it may be months, possibly 
longer, before the funeral takes place out of respect for 
the departed. 

It transpired later on, however (Mr. Tang proffered the 



"A WHITE AFFAIR " 75 

information himself without any feeling of shame) that 
when the thirtieth day had passed, and the fourth feast 
was over, they decided to hasten the festivities by 
deceiving the old mother as to the correct date. They 
informed " her " officially that she had been dead six 
weeks instead of five. Spirits, luckily, are easily hood- 
winked ! 

In those cities which have come into contact with 
Western civilisation, foreignised funeral customs are being 
adopted, with, however, sundry alterations to suit the 
Oriental idea of the fitness of things. Thus, a brass band, 
instead of discoursing appropriate funeral airs, keeps up a 
lively atmosphere by playing with gusto " Yankee Doodle 
went to Town " just in front of the coffin. 

Carriages and funeral wreaths in profusion are the 
correct thing nowadays in those few favoured places 
where such luxuries as carriage roads and florists exist. 
Dispensing with the white cock, the new idea is to reserve 
the whole of the first mourning carriage for the use of a 
large-sized photo of the deceased, which occupies the 
seat of honour banked up by flowers and wreaths, and 
as a concession to foreign prejudice the chief mourners 
when on foot, are protected from the public gaze by a 
four-sided portable screen made of sheeting. 

A Chinese family of high rank, and so much in advance 
of the times as to wear black instead of white at the 
funeral, invited us some weeks ago to the funeral feast. 
It was held at one of the most fashionable restaurants of 
the city and was in all points a festive event. The 
excellent dinner, of some eleven courses served in Western 
style, had been superbly cooked. One found it difficult 
to realise that, in accordance with funeral customs, it 



76 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

was a vegetable dinner. The fried soles, the pigeons, the 
fowl, and so on, might almost have passed for the genuine 
article, even the bones of the latter had been manu- 
factured. 

In the " City of the River Orchid," as in most Chinese 
cities, suicides are common occurrences. Every few days 
of late an urgent request has come for some of the foreign 
teachers' life-saving medicines, for invariably the case is 
one of poisoning. As often as not the means used is 
some familiar domestic article within the reach of all. 
Constantly the cause of the disaster is merely a sudden 
quarrel between two members of the family, and the 
fatal act has been committed in the blind rage of the 
moment or in a spirit of revenge, for as a disembodied 
spirit one will, so it is thought, be able to pay back old 
scores with a vengeance. 

Whether purposely or by accident the would-be suicide 
often takes enough to frighten the whole household but 
not enough to accomplish the desired end. Amongst the 
" contemptible ones of the inner apartments " the 
household salt sometimes provides the poison used. In 
most Chinese homes the store of salt is preserved in a 
suspended jar, the bottom of which is perforated with 
holes. In course of time the moisture oozes through the 
holes and drips into a vessel placed there for the purpose, 
forming a strong solution of spirits of salt. Face powder, 
in which one ingredient is lead, is said to be quite as 
efficacious. Sometimes a gold ring answers the purpose, 
occasionally a mixture of gamboge, and most frequently 
perhaps, the deed is done with an overdose of opium. 



CHAPTER VII 
Presents Wet and Dry 

Just now feasting is the order of the day, for this is 
the winter solstice, a week before Christmas, one of the 
chief festivals in the ancestral halls all over the country. 
Though by law the number of these clan buildings is 
limited according to social position, many a humble 
family by right of connection with either a scholar or an 
official, can claim some part or lot with one or another 
of these ancestral temples. On the register, preserved 
within the walls, are enrolled the names of the living and 
the dead, and various particulars with regard to the 
latter, such as, for instance, the amount of money spent 
on their funerals, the number and quality of their 
" longevity clothes," and the description of property 
left by them for the benefit of the ancestral hall. 

All those on the register can claim a share of some 
kind — the head of the family, the near relations have 
very naturally a larger share than the rest. To all, 
however, in course of time comes the privilege, though 
possibly only once in fifty or sixty years, of " sowing the 
ancestral fields," which means that though for that 
year the rent for the same is their 's to pay, this is but 
an insignificant item compared to the value of the 
harvest. It is seldom indeed that a name is erased from 
the register, though on occasions when, for instance, a 
member of the clan arouses the ire of his fellows bv 



78 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

becoming a Christian, or for some other reason, his rights 
to ancestral property are bitterly opposed. Custom 
ordains, however, in many parts of the country that a 
man's name cannot be taken off the books without that 
of his father or of some other near relative, which arrange- 
ment adding, as it does, untold complications usually 
prevents any interference in the matter. 

As regards the Christians, there is certainly something 
to be said for the rest of the family. They argue that as 
the deserter from their ranks declines henceforth to 
subscribe to the feast provided for the spirits of the 
ancestors, or to join in the worship of the departed, he 
should be ready to forgo his share of the good things, 
and this many of them are perfectly willing to do. 

The " Ancestral Hall " belonging to the family of one 
of my pupils lies half-hidden amongst the trees in a 
sheltered nook at the foot of the hills. As we passed that 
way one afternoon during the days of the winter feasting 
we looked in hoping to see something of the festivities. 

The pavilion-like building, an especially handsome one, 
stands at the far end of a spacious court planted with 
Cyprus trees and ornamented with carved stonework. 
Around the court small ante-rooms and a gatehouse shut 
in the sacred precincts. 

In the hall itself the ceremony for the day was over, but 
some stately gentlemen in brocaded silk courteously 
invited us to enter and " look see." 

Many dainty dishes of fruits and sweetmeats and food 
of a more solid nature were spread in symmetrical array 
on the altar-like table before the central tablets. The 
weird silence that hung over the scene added to the feeling 
that an interruption had taken place in the proceedings. 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 79 

As we surveyed the still un tasted eatables, and glanced 
round inquiringly at the long rows of tablets starred with 
gilded characters that stood upon their shelves around 
the walls, we could almost have imagined that they were 
indeed inhabited by spirits, and that, at the sight of 
these intruders on their privacy, they had hastily climbed 
back to their places and were staring down upon us. 

" Now ye front us, O spirits, now ye pass us by, 
ascending and descending unrestricted by conditions of 
space " — so runs one of the prayers used on these occa- 
sions. " Your souls are in heaven, your tablets are in the 
rear apartment. For myriads of years will your descen- 
dants think of you with filial thoughts unwearied." * 

At the end of the feasting which continues for several 
days the food is divided " by order of teeth " (by 
seniority) and according to the respective rights of all 
the members of the clan. One wondered if any one would 
have the temerity to partake of the fish (five days old at 
the lowest computation), a handsome dish of which had 
formed a piece de resistance on the altar table. 

Much, however, might be said in favour of the ancestral 
hall system, apart from the idolatrous rites. Many an 
unlucky family has been saved from penury by those at 
the head of the clan who were able to divert in their 
favour financial help for the ancestral property. 

There are people in the " City of the River Orchid " 
who expect great things of the Republic. As one worthy 
farmer maintained in the early days of the new era, five 
evils would without doubt be abolished — the binding of 
the feet — the consumption of the black smoke (opium) — 
sticking in silver and carrying gold, i.e., the wearing of 

* Prayer used on certain occasions of ancestral worship. 



80 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

jewellery — the smoking of foreign tobacco (cigarettes), 
and, lastly, the worship of idols. 

As regards the binding of the feet, however, there still 
remains a strong feeling, at all events in the lower and 
the middle classes, that in order to compete successfully 
in the matrimonial market, bound feet are as necessary 
as ever unless a greater attraction can be offered in the 
shape of a modern education. For some years now girls 
with bound feet have been excluded from all Government 
schools, and in mission schools, where the educational 
advantages offered are often of a higher calibre than 
those in Government institutions, bound feet have 
always been condemned, though not in all cases absolutely 
forbidden. 

Thus it comes about that in some families one girl 
" reads books " (goes to school) and keeps her natural 
feet, whereas the sister, or embryo sister-in-law as the 
case may be, stays at home to be fitted for matrimony in 
the other and cheaper way. 

One could not but wonder how the idea arose that the 
wearing of jewellery and smoking of cigarettes would 
cease after the birth of the " People's Kingdom." As a 
" maid looks to the hand of her mistress " so new China 
looks at the ways of America and would gladly adopt 
them as her own. 

Therefore, gilded youths, like my " brocaded " pupil, 
Mr. Wang, and others of his ilk are wearing rings of 
accentuated foreign pattern, and, despite the fact that 
they are the happy possessors of absolutely undecayed 
teeth, white and even, they have been so attracted by 
the beauty (?) of the gold crowns in a well-preserved 
American mouth that they have purchased from the 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 81 

local dentist, a man trained in an American school, gold 
sheaths which on gala occasions are worn as movable 
ornaments on the most prominent of their front teeth ! 
Such, alas, is the blind imitation of Western ways in 
these days of transition. As to cigarettes, have they not 
come in the first place from America itself ? They have 
spread from town to town, from province to province, 
lite a plague of locusts. In distant inland cities, on 
picturesque pagodas and city walls one comes across the 
crudely coloured picture advertisements of the Cigarette 
Company, the one jarring touch in a scene that would 
gladden the soul of an artist. 

So great is the sale of this " rolled up tobacco grass " 
that fabulous wealth is ascribed to the promoters of the 
company, and slowly but surely the old water pipe, said 
to be the least injurious form of smoking in existence, is 
being superseded. 

As to the idols — many have had to go to the wall to 
make way either for soldiers or for scholars. Here and 
there temples have been turned into barracks or into 
schools. One sign of the times, more significant than the 
destruction of idols, lies in the fact that temple buildings, 
transformed into educational establishments have been 
opened out and lit up on every side by large " foreign " 
windows in happy disregard of the evil influences which, 
up till now, it has been considered necessary to exclude 
by thick walls on all sides, except that of the lucky south. 

In some of the temporary barracks, soldiers and idols 
have occupied the floor space together ; in others, a clean 
sweep has been made of the whole gilded assembly, but 
this by no means argued that the people have ceased 
to believe in their efficacy. Many, acknowledging the 



82 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

necessity of both schools and barracks would probably 
have answered in the words of an Emperor of the tenth 
century who, at a critical period when copper money had 
become exceedingly scarce, gave orders that all copper 
idols should be melted down for use in the mint, for, 
" the gods " said His Majesty, " have the good of man- 
kind at heart, and will be quite willing to sacrifice their 
images in the service of the people ! " 

One change, however, inaugurated by the Republic, 
has found little favour in the eyes of the residents of 
inland cities. The old calendar, by which all things have 
been regulated from time immemorial, has been officially 
abolished, and the Western calendar introduced in its 
place. 

The farmers and the country people set their faces 
against the alteration from the first. " We should have 
only ten months in which to plough our fields," said one. 

" And how," asked another, " should we be able to tell 
the date of the tidal wave." * 

" Besides," they argued, " if we adopt the ' Yang Li ' 
(the sun calendar) New Year's Day will be on the twenty- 
third of the eleventh moon — we shall lose more than two 
months' interest on the money that has been lent. Thus 
the tradesmen agreed, that to make up the year's 
accounts in the eleventh moon, would be a most irregular 
proceeding, fraught with financial loss. In the " City of 
the River Orchid," however, they were perfectly willing 
to fall in with the suggestions, in theory at all events, 
that the day should be observed as a public holiday. In 
any case, all Government offices, schools, post offices, 

* The famous Hangchow " Bore," which, however, subsides long before the 
" City of the River Orchid " is reached. 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 83 

etc., were closed, and here and there some son of new 
China donned his " ceremony clothes," and went round 
to call on his friends in honour of the event, though, when 
it came to the point, all the shops remained open, being 
reluctant to lose a chance of trade with the one holiday 
of the year not much more than a month ahead. 

It was without doubt a curious fact, as one remarked 
to the other, that this change to the " sun calendar " had 
considerably affected the weather. A snowstorm which 
was a not infrequent event on the eve of the Chinese New 
Year, according to the old reckoning, had arrived con- 
trary to all precedent nearly six weeks too soon on the 
eve of the " foreign " New Year. No wonder the farmers 
shook their heads, and complained that if they were 
foolhardy enough to adopt the " sun calendar " they 
would never know when to sow their crops. It was to be 
hoped that the fortnightly periods known as " grain 
rains," " excited insects," and so forth, would not arrive 
prematurely even as the snow had done. 

New Year's Day (moon calendar) would fall this year 
on February 6th, and the citizens and country people set 
themselves with greater fervour than ever to prepare for 
the time-honoured festivity. Along the already crowded 
streets, new stalls, like monster fungi, cropped up in 
profusion, selling for the most part, scrolls of thin and 
brightly-coloured paper, inscribed with classical sayings, 
to be pasted anon on the doors of houses, and on the 
wooden pillars of guest halls. There are white ones, and 
blue ones for families in mourning, brick-dust red and 
crimson ones for those who are not. The orange stalls are 
offering grotesque masks for sale, and queer erections, like 
small carpet looms, are put up on waste bits of ground, the 



84 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

white threads, some eight feet or so in length, are not 
woollen threads after all but strips of mien, a kind of maca- 
roni, which being symbolic of long life, are made in especi- 
ally long lengths for the auspicious occasion. The caterers 
for the dead are doing a thriving trade. The coffin 
makers seem perpetually at work, and the shops in which 
are displayed the paper houses and furniture for the next 
world have a goodly store of articles on view. For days 
beforehand one meets rich and poor coming back across 
the fields from their marketing in the city. The poor man's 
basket is a pathetic sight — the small sum has been so 
carefully laid out to the best advantage in a packet or two 
of " little heart " (confectionery), a tiny jar of oil, a small 
pot of wine, a few red candles, a string or two of tinfoil 
money for the ancestors, and lastly, a very minute piece 
of pork (which is extremely dear just now, as all the pigs 
were killed in a hurry during the Revolution). As to the 
" spirit money " it cost but a few copper cash to buy, 
but in the next world will be worth to the dear departed, 
at least twenty dollars. 

The twelfth moon — in other words the month of 
January — brings with it this year a new distraction. 
Every day through one busy week fresh relays of the 
learned and the wealthy, from other parts of the province, 
appear on the scenes, and as the newspapers phrase it — 
" For the first time 400,000,000 people in China are 
interested in the same thing," but they are mistaken. 
In the " City of the River Orchid," as in many other 
places, the new parliamentary elections arouse so little 
enthusiasm that the man in the street, when asked why 
so many well-to-do strangers are staying in the city, can 
suggest no reason. The payment of two dollars a year 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 85 

in taxes gives the right to a vote, and the liberty, 
apparently, to sell one's vote to the highest bidder. Too 
much buying and selling is dangerous, for in a record 
given of a district up north the head man of a township 
persuaded his friends, not only to vote four or five times 
over in his favour, but to purchase some ten or fifteen 
votes apiece for his benefit. This was somewhat too bold 
a step, and the judge called in the police. An elderly 
politician, a well-read man, who took a more intelligent 
interest in the affairs of the world than most of his ilk, 
was asked if a member of the provincial assembly could 
also be elected to the Peking Parliament. The reply was 
characteristic of his race : — " Can a monkey," he asked, 
" wear two hats ? " 

My pupils, Wang and his cousin, had had no time this 
month for the English lessons, being busy " collecting 
their debts." Almost every Chinese is, to a greater or less 
degree, both a borrower and a money-lender. 

" A good borrower will have much wealth, while the 
self-user will be reduced," say the Chinese, and they also 
maintain that " If the pence do not go, the pounds will 
not come," and that " Money (not charity) covers a 
multitude of sins." 

The trading instinct is so strong, even amongst small 
boys, that they will lend out their cash at interest and, 
failing cash, any extra food that can be spared. 

The " Third Precious," an adopted waif who lives on 
the premises, a phlegmatic morsel of some five summers, 
little more than a baby, whose cheeks grow fatter every 
day to the impoverishment of his eyes and, who seldom 
speaks above a whisper, and that only under persuasion, 



86 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

was discovered the other day to have bartered a portion 
of his Christmas presents, the first he had ever been 
known to possess, for the fortieth part of a penny per 
piece. Doubtless he has inherited the trading instinct 
from his mother who, owing to the death of her husband, 
was glad not only to hand over the M Third Precious " to 
the teacher sisters, but to make money by the sale of her 
last baby. She had, moreover, adroitly persuaded the 
purchaser thereof to loan the child back to her at so 
much a month for its keep. 

At the New Year, sticky rice dumplings are in vogue — 
called Nien Gao. By a play on the Chinese words, the 
name is held to mean that he who partakes of this appe- 
tising dish will be " annually elevated " (rise in the 
world). 

Another New Year's speciality are miniature " wedding 
cakes " sprinkled with red powder and black dates. As 
the Chinese say — " The stomach loves surprises " — and 
on inspection the dainty cake turns out to be a weird 
mixture of fat pork and sugar plums. The same red 
paper, something like blotting paper in consistency, used 
by cooks for colouring confectionery, is also much in 
request by the ladies of the inner apartments as a 
cosmetic. 

Long before the actual day, New Year's gifts are 
exchanged or refused. Ba Giao Si, being a person of some 
importance in the city, and filling, moreover, the position 
of the head of the household, is the recipient of a constant 
stream of presents. Morning, noon and eve bring their 
share — packets of sugar, packets of sweetmeats all 
wrapped in the orthodox red striped paper, baskets of 
fruit and nuts, baskets of chickens, baskets of eggs. In 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 87 

the end over a thousand eggs were received, and as to 
the chickens, the little poultry yard was nearly as tightly 
packed with victims as a Chinese prison. But in China 
things are not what they seem, not that one would suggest 
anything fraudulent about the chickens, or even about the 
eggs, but custom ordains that to him who gives shall be 
given, and a basket must never be returned empty. A 
convenient plan therefore obtains of taking A.'s present 
or part of it and handing it, unknown of course to A., to 
E. or F., and of using the gifts presented by E. and F. for 
B. and C. Fortunately eggs and sugar tell no tales. 
When all exchanges have been made, and one reckons up 
one's financial position, it stands probably very much as 
it did, but it is more than likely that one has increased 
somewhat in wisdom, and one realises now that F. 
wishes to be friendly again after the estrangement of a 
few years ago, that Mrs. W. would like you to do her a 
favour, and that G.'s second wife's niece's husband 
wishes you well, whereas you had fancied that he was on 
the side of the opposition. As to the Mrs. W. who is 
currying favour, her case is usually weighed and found 
wanting. A message is sent down, therefore, saying that 
Chinese sweetmeats are very good, but we are not eating 
them to-day. She will understand perfectly and take 
back her rejected present with smiles. Cakes, sweet- 
meats, etc., are all wet gifts. There are the dry gifts to be 
considered as well, which take the form of " hard cash " 
— a hundred copper coins strung on a red cord is pre- 
sented to every child in Ba Giao Si's household. A dry 
gift in return is necessary, and this should exceed the 
first in value on the Chinese principle that " One presents 
a quince in the hope of receiving a gem." 



88 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

My pupils, Wang and his cousin, sent a more dainty- 
gift of orange trees and flowering shrubs in pots. This 
meant, of course, " golden sand " (a tip) to the servant in 
charge, and a return offering later in the day, which with 
some diffidence on my part, took the form of silk pocket 
handkerchiefs, and the unexpressed hope that I might 
see them again some day, not as a rejected gift, but in the 
ordinary course of events. Alas, however, at the end of 
the New Year's holiday when Wang reappeared with a 
smile and a piece of cotton wool as a nasal appendix, I 
was forced to conclude that my well-intentioned present 
had not fulfilled its destiny. 

Some days before the first of the New Year (old style) 
the neighbours, up and down the street, were busy speed- 
ing the kitchen god upon his heavenly way. Before our 
gates a bonfire was burning brightly, poked atten- 
tively from time to time by the master of the house and 
his little wife. The god, flying upwards in the sparks, 
had already " gone to heaven," they said (" shang tien "), 
and we were just too late to see him start. In the next 
house, however, we had better luck, " the venerable one of 
the stove " had not yet left, and they promised to send 
word so that we might speed the parting guest. Half an 
hour later, the good lady of the house arrived with her 
red and yellow lantern bobbing at the end of a stick, to 
escort us in person. Hers was a house of some wealth, 
and a goodly feast of dainty dishes, preserved fruits and 
sugar plums, was spread upon the kitchen table under the 
shrine, so that the god might take his fill of sweetmeats 
before ascending to the skies, and carry with him 
pleasant memories, which it was hoped would induce him 
to give a good report of the family to the powers that be. 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 89 

Three tiny cups of tea stood side by side — one for himself, 
one for his father, one for his wife, and a bamboo lamp- 
stand, something like a miniature chair, was draped with 
mottoes on red paper for the " venerable one " to sit on 
when starting on his journey. 

" He goes to Heaven to report favourable things ! 
He comes down to earth to protect and give peace ! " 

so ran the words of the mottoes. We sat in the guest hall 
to see him pass. The master of the house bore the hero of 
the evening rapidly through the room, bore him some- 
what shamefacedly we fancied, and seemed reluctant to 
let us see his treasure at close quarters, a poor thing 
enough as regarded his outward appearance, merely a 
bit of painted paper about a foot long cut in the 
shape of a manikin, and " seated " on the bamboo 
erection. 

A bundle of shavings, set on fire outside the front 
entrance, soon accelerated his departure, while the master 
of the house bowed low to his fleeting spirit, bowed to 
heaven and to earth, and again, and yet again to the 
yellow flames, whilst a volley of fire crackers announced 
the departure of the god. There is a quaintly worded 
prayer used on these occasions in which the petitioners 
confess that " it is possible that both old and young have 
transgressed in innumerable ways as we have passed in 
and out of this kitchen ; through lack of proper attention 
and dress we, too, may have given offence to you, or 
insulted the spirits of heaven and earth " — and so 
forth. 

Five days later the shrine will again be occupied, and 
in the words of the prayer, by the god's " endless goodness 



90 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

and exhaustless favour," the family will, they hope, " be 
enabled to continue " through the year. 

On " New Year's Day " hard-boiled eggs in generous 
quantities, unlimited tea, melon seeds, monkey nuts and 
all kinds of confectionery were spread out on the guest- 
hall table in tempting array, to be replenished throughout 
the day as fresh relays of visitors arrived. One or two 
had paid their duty calls already on January ist. Others 
had decided that the custom was now obsolete and might 
be discarded together with the queue and the. classics, 
and a select few, amongst those who came, showed that 
they, too, had been influenced by the new era by bringing 
their wives with them and sitting down side by side to the 
hard-boiled eggs and the tea, The duty of a wife, says an 
old Chinese writer, " is to serve at table and stand by in 
silence to fill and light her husband's pipe " — she herself 
must eat alone in a corner. But times have changed ! 

On New Year's Eve one could almost have imagined 
oneself to be in the midst of a raging battle, so incessant 
and so deafening was the explosion of fire crackers all 
round our walls, but on the morning of the eventful day 
a silence as of death reigned throughout the busiest streets 
of that busy town. On each threshold tiny red spots 
flecked the ground, reminding one of an historical scene 
years ago in the land of the Egyptians, but no avenging 
angel had passed that way — the red stains were but the 
remains of the fire crackers — bits of red paper and 
crumpled incense sticks of last night's fiery salutation to 
the gods. 

Last night, and well through the night, much feasting 
had taken place and now, for the most part, the revellers 
were slumbering heavily. 



PRESENTS WET AND DRY 91 

houses seemed asleep." For the only occasion throughout 
the year the street pavement was dry and comparatively 
clean, for this is the one and only day in which the water 
carriers carry no water, the sewage carriers, no sewage, 
when, in fact, no work is done of any sort or description. 
There is moreover a general belief, even in these modern 
times, that whatever one happens to do on New Year's 
Day, one will continue to do throughout the coming year. 
Small wonder then that the performers of menial duties, 
anxious for a rise in the world should especially seek to 
escape from the " trivial round and common task." 
Care must be exercised in other directions as well, and 
many a respectable citizen believes that it will assuredly 
be a sign of ill luck if the first person he happens to meet 
that morning be a woman. He is well aware also that 
unpropitious words such as " death " or " devil " must 
be avoided. 

The narrow alley ways, usually crowded with life and 
colour, are swept and garnished — garnished with wooden 
shutters, a long double row of them, shutting one in on 
either side like an interminable series of coach-house 
doors, and decorated by the red paper scrolls with appro- 
priate mottoes. As the day drew on, people in holiday 
attire, men and boys for the most part, emerged for a 
gentle stroll along the empty streets. There were signs 
of an awakening populace and sounds of mirth issued 
from behind closed doors — discordant sounds, the wild 
beating of gongs, the banging of tea trays, the clash of 
symbols and twanging of wheezy-stringed instruments, so 
deafening and uproarious was the so-called music that 
one could almost imagine that every member of the 
family had seized on the culinary utensils of the house 



92 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

and turned them pro tern into " musical " instruments. 
" For improving manners and customs there is nothing 
like music," said the ancients, and we hear of a disciple 
of Confucius who " ruled his district in peace by playing 
the guitar." Surely things have changed since those 
good old days ! 



CHAPTER VIII 

Flower Lamps and Learning Halls. 

The 15th of the first moon, the last day of the New 
Year's holidays, is to be celebrated as usual by the 
Festival of Lanterns. This, in spite of the fact that " New 
China " condemns these foolish customs. There has been 
no official procession to the fields this spring to bless the 
future crops, no painted cow of clay to show by the colours 
with which it is adorned, what the weather will be like 
during the coming year. Twelve months ago in the first 
flush of enthusiasm at the birth of the " People's King- 
dom " the gods were forgotten, and no one heeded the 
musty, tarnished idols which were associated half-uncon- 
sciously perhaps with the "Manchu Usurpers." A 
" People's Kingdom " would be an Elysium in which all 
men would be equal and each a little king on his own 
account. Henceforth, traders would pay no " lekin," 
farmers would pay no land tax, " Worms of the King- 
dom " (rapacious officials) would no longer exist, peace 
and prosperity would reign throughout the land ! In Sun 
Yat Sen's own words — " Inglorious bondage had been 
transformed to an inspiring freedom, splendid with the 
illustrious light of opportunity." But this year, the 
second year of the New Republic, there were not a few 
who sighed for the old regime. In these days, they said, 
one never knew what was going to happen next. These 
young officials with Western education, " imitation 



94 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

foreigners " as they were called, were an uncertain 
quantity, and though they had studied Western science, 
they had forgotten the " book of rites," and manners, 
which, after all, are " the shadows of virtues," were con- 
spicuously lacking. As to some of the new military 
officials, the great " Tiger Hsu " and others, it was said 
that they could neither read nor write. Property had 
become less secure, living more expensive, and some of 
these new-fangled ideas were ridiculous. As to those 
queer foreign clothes, they lacked comfort, being cold in 
winter, hot in summer, and too tight altogether to enable 
one to " catch the fleas." 

Thus in the " City of the River Orchid," as in many 
other places, the dragon came to his own again, and on 
the 15 th of the first moon great were the celebrations in 
his honour. From the upper windows of the house 
behind the banana trees we sat, as it were, in the dress 
circle in full view of the stage, or more correctly speak- 
ing, of the open country on the opposite shore. From 
across the water came the hum of many thousands of 
voices like the distant whirr of machinery — the orange 
and crimson-coloured lanterns — flower lamps as the 
Chinese call them, of the people coming and going, rose 
and sank like monster fireflies, and here and there, 
reflected in the black water, they shone like ladders 
of golden steps. Rockets swished overhead, crackers 
snapped and banged announcing the approach of the 
dragon. It came at last, a fiery serpent nearly the third of 
a mile in length ! Head, body and tail of lighted lanterns, 
curling round the hillside, it " crawled " swiftly along 
the shore, its image reflected in the water in a wriggling 
stream of gold. The beating of gongs, the firing of 
crackers, the shouting of many voices filled the air. 



FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS 95 

Truly the gods were pleased ! There was no burst of 
rain to extinguish the lights and mar the beauty of the 
lanterns, as had been the case so often of late years. The 
fire-dragon swept along the shore in undisturbed splen- 
dour, when suddenly it swayed, hesitating in its triumphal 
progress. The whole river side was a blaze of light, and 
white flames sprang up from the red glow of the paper 
lanterns. Was the monster being consumed by its own 
fire ? Not so, for in another moment it swept back, tail 
first this time, and swinging forward whirled in a circle of 
light round and round in a weird dance of ecstasy — a fire 
dragon nearly the third of a mile in length ! Till at last, 
all energy spent, it slowly uncoiled and slipped round the 
hillside out of sight. " The gods were pleased ! " And 
a few days later, on an evening approved of by the 
astrologers, a rival dragon appeared before the city walls. 
It went on its way with many halts in compliance with 
the unwritten law that wherever crackers are fired off 
in its honour, the dragon shall pause in acknowledgment. 
The " creature " being this time within arm's length, we 
were able to observe its anatomy and the ingenious 
method by which the green and scaly paper body, lit 
from within by candles, was supported on slender planks, 
connected one with the other by a rough hinge which 
gives elasticity to the whole, and borne on the shoulders 
of men who, walking in the shadow under the planks, 
were fairly inconspicuous except at close quarters. On 
the head of the dragon a paper boat, in itself a 
monster lantern, was occupied by a crew of manikins, 
each made of coloured paper lit from within. Clocks, 
books, fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, all in the form of 
elegant lanterns., varied the monotony. 



96 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

A night or two ago an encounter with another kind 
of dragon — the " fire dragon " caused great commotion 
along the river front. We saw the weird light in the sky, 
and people running. " It is within the city walls," they 
cried. So closely packed were the houses, and so inflam- 
mable was much of the material with which they were 
built that a fire inside the city walls was likely to assume 
dangerous proportions. We joined the hurrying throng 
as with loud shouts and yells, the custodians of the peace, 
or rather the disturbers of the peace, ran past. Their 
lanterns, red and yellow, bobbed up and down above 
the heads of the crowd as they rushed by, and behind 
them, men carrying buckets pushed their way through, 
but water from half a dozen buckets or so would be mere 
thimblefuls in the midst of the column of flames bursting 
through the roof of a substantial white building ahead 
of us. Every minute or so a thud of some heavy weight 
falling, sounded ominous, but it was nothing, nothing but 
enormous bundles of cotton wool, some six feet in length, 
which the frightened owners were flinging over the city 
wall for safety. Whether owing to the presence of the 
buckets or the absence of the cotton wool there was no 
telling, but by the time the " water dragon " (fire engine) 
had been brought from the city temple with much beating 
of gongs and clamour of voices, the fire had practically 
subsided. Only the one house was destroyed, whilst the 
buildings wedged tightly in on either side had strangely 
enough escaped, but those who knew the circumstances 
declared that this was not strange at all. A revengeful 
mother-in-law was to blame in the matter. Being wildly 
indignant with her son for bestowing too much affection 
on the " inner person " (his wife) she had constructed a 



FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS 97 

straw man — a god of revenge — and day by day had 
worshipped before it, burning candles and incense, and 
praying that by his help, evil might overtake her unfilial 
offspring. Her prayers had been answered with undoubted 
vigour, but in a way she had not anticipated. The son 
and his wife happened to be in the country paying a New 
Year's visit to relations. It was considered a significant 
fact that the brunt of the misfortune fell on the old lady 
herself. She was at the other end of the city looking on 
ata" flower lamp procession " when the fire broke out, 
started, so it was said, by a candle that had been left 
alight in front of the "god of revenge," and when she 
finally returned home it was to find the house in ashes 
and all her possessions gone. Moreover, the neighbours' 
doors were inhospitably closed against her in self-defence, 
it being considered a sure invitation to disaster to invite 
people into your house who have been burnt out of 
their own. 

At this festive season, acrobatic mice, conjurers and 
Punch and Judy shows appear on the scenes. In China, 
Punch and Judy shows are on their native soil. Since 
the days of the ancients, some 800 years or more B.C., 
marionettes have been in existence in the land of the 
Celestials, and according to the annals of history, they 
have sometimes been put to strange uses. 

The story goes that the Huns, under a certain famous 
general, were advancing on the imperial city (200 b.c) 
when a bright idea occurred to one of the palace officials. 
Before long he had lined the city walls with life-sized 
marionnettes skilfully constructed to represent maidens 
of great beauty. The strategy proved successful, for the 
Hun chieftain had with him, as probably the astute 



98 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

official was well aware, an exceedingly jealous wife, who 
seeing, as she fancied, so many beautiful young ladies 
looking down upon them from the walls, persuaded her 
lord and master to leave the city in peace ! 

Chen Ping, though now promoted to be the Punch and 
Judy god, began life, say some, as this same wily official, 
who, by his wooden figures, preserved the imperial city 
from attack. 

In the Chinese Punch and Judy show there is a motley 
company of dramatis personce, including an enormous 
goose, a miniature donkey, a large tortoise, a tiny monkey, 
a black devil, a Buddhist priest, and half a dozen 
policemen. The sleight of hand by which the puppets 
are worked is exceedingly clever. The Judies, of whom 
there are two, appear as interested spectators, by the 
side wings of the tiny stage, watching the entries of their 
weird companions, whose tendencies, like those of their 
Western descendants, are of a distinctly pugilistic nature. 
At the end of the performance they, the tiny Judies, 
waltz round in placid satisfaction, and as they dance their 
eyelids blink up and down winking familiarly at the 
audience. The little stage and stand are in all essentials 
counterparts of those in Western lands, but with true 
Oriental inconsistency little or no attempt is made to 
hide the legs of the manipulator. Such irrelevant details 
are " buh yao gin" (of no importance). On a Chinese 
stage no one objects to the presence of street urchins, who 
climb up in front so as to get a better view. 

The Chinese, as a race, have great histrionic talents, 
fostered doubtless by the exigencies of their daily life, 
which so often lead them to pretend to be what they are 
not. For nearly two hundred years women have been 



FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS 99 

debarred from the stage by law, but in the " People's 
Kingdom " the old prohibition no longer holds good, and 
in the early days of the Republic some Cantonese ladies 
took part in public theatricals in order to collect funds for 
the Chinese army in Mongolia ! To buy girls in order 
to train them as actresses is becoming a new source of 
income for the unscrupulous. 

" If a girl does no harm, it is enough, you cannot 
expect her to be either good or useful," so said a Chinese 
writer of bygone days. 

" Can you teach an intelligent horse to read and write, 
well then, if you cannot teach an intelligent horse, what 
can you expect to do with a woman," said another of these 
ancient pessimists. 

In their hearts they knew better, but the policy of 
inaction commended itself to all. It was, no doubt, the 
safer course to pursue. As the Chinese proverb runs — 
" A man knows, but a woman knows better." There was 
no telling what might happen if girls were allowed the 
same educational advantages as their brothers, and it was 
shrewdly suspected that they might, if given the chance, 
prove the apter scholars of the two and become in- 
subordinate in the home. Was there not a warning in 
the classics to the effect that " daughters who are per- 
mitted to please themselves will grow proud and lazy and 
able to speak sharply," and girls in these days are exceed- 
ingly anxious to go to the " Hall of Instruction " and 
" read books." 

It is more than half a century now since the first girls' 
school was opened in China, but in spite of the fact that 
pupils were paid to attend, the school was not popular, 



ioo CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

and the only children obtainable were either those of the 
very poor, or unwanted waifs. 

By slow degrees, however, educational establishments 
for girls increased in quantity and quality, yet, even so, an 
authority in these matters maintained that a very few 
years ago but one woman in three thousand was able to 
read. Until 1898 the schools were invariably connected 
with Missions, but in that year some Chinese officials and 
merchants started one on their own account in Shanghai, 
for, they maintained, " to open up the intelligence of the 
country, we must certainly make the women free." 
Before long the school was suppressed by order of the 
Dowager Empress who, however, a few years later 
changed front, and became, nominally at least, a " warm 
patron of woman's education." In these days Govern- 
ment schools for girls are to be found in nearly all the big 
cities. " The most important thing in China just now is 
that women be educated," said Yuan Shi Kai shortly 
before his retirement after the " Old Buddha's " death, 
and in many places there are spacious school buildings 
with the gilded characters over the door : " Female 
Learning Hall " even if there be no actual school within 
its walls. 

The buildings are significant of the new era, with their 
large glass windows (letting in plenty of light and air, 
regardless of demons), their seats and desks, their maps, 
their anatomical plates, and natural history pictures 
upon the walls, and finally the " wind lute " (harmonium), 
without which no well-regulated modern school in China 
is complete. But, alas ! Only a few hold their heads well 
above water ; some are closed for lack of teachers, some 
for lack of funds, and others are sinking so rapidly in the 



FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS 101 

estimation of the people that before long they will go 
under altogether. 

A little knowledge — Western knowledge — may be a 
" dangerous thing," but in China in these days of tran- 
sition, it is a certain source of income. A few lessons in 
English, a smattering of arithmetic and geography will 
help to secure a lucrative berth, and the other day a girl, 
whose sole qualification for the post was that she had 
sung in the choir at a mission church, was engaged as 
music teacher in the Government school ! 

The Chinese girl, however, who is considered thoroughly 
well educated, graduates at one of the Chinese-American 
seminaries which, thanks to American missions, have 
been established in some of the most important cities. 
If a promising pupil, she will probably join the select few 
who cross the seas to continue their education in 
American colleges, and who, before now, although 
handicapped by a language that is not their own, have 
astonished their fellow graduates by winning the prizes 
and taking the honours to which they themselves have 
aspired. Here and there the mission schools have pro- 
duced still another type of woman of whom any country 
might be proud : 

" The reason firm, the temperate will, 
Endurance, foresight, strength and skill," 

and while a modern education, hand in hand with 
Christianity, has aroused her slumbering imagination, 
and fostered in her the power of sympathy, she has not 
lost the gentle caressing manner and quiet dignity of 
other days. 

Some, however, who prefer quick methods and showy 



102 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

accomplishments soon leave the mission school to be 
" finished " in Japan, where complete courses of educa- 
tional treatment, cheap and otherwise, long or short, are 
" in the market " to suit the time and the purse of all who 
come. 

This quick-witted, superficially educated young woman 
becomes, as a rule, a very self-confident member of 
society on her return home, proud- of her accomplish- 
ments, her superior knowledge, and full of destructive 
ideas. 

The " Kingdom of the Home " savours too much, she 
fancies, of the limitations of other days. She not only 
sighs for, but seeks and finds " fresh fields and pastures 
new." 

One has met her in male uniform with her hair cut 
short, enlisting in the Amazon corps to fight for her 
country. One has come across her as a Red Cross nurse, 
all alone, except for a girl companion, in a house full of 
soldiers ; one has heard of her attacking the assembly 
hall in Nanking as a suffragette, or figuring as a member of 
a band of girl detectives lately enrolled by the Govern- 
ment. When she marries she tries to adopt the " Ameri- 
can " style as she calls it, and makes the first advances, 
or she resorts to matrimonial advertisements like a girl 
student of Wuchang, who the other day solicited offers of 
marriage in a local paper : " My unhappy destiny," she 
wrote, " has led me to incite my parents' displeasure, 
and to travel far to another place, for my life must be 
one of liberty. Should any gentleman desire to marry 
me it is necessary that he should accompany his offer 
with his photo and visiting card, stating his business and 
place of residence. Next Sunday I shall examine the 



FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS 103 

scholarships of all who apply, and when the engagement 
has been settled I shall, in order to authenticate the 
matter, publish the name and business and address of 
the gentleman in the newspaper. . . ." As an after- 
thought she added : " Any one over twenty years of 
age whose social rank is unsuitable will kindly refrain 
from calling ! " 

If reports be true this is by no means an isolated 
instance, but as goes without saying, this unrestrained 
spirit of liberty has made sad havoc of these unconven- 
tional marriages before many months were over. O ye 
shades of Confucius where are now the four virtues and 
the three obediences of your " mindless, soulless creature," 
the modesty, docility, careful speech, and submissive 
demeanour which were once considered the whole duty 
of woman ? 

Occasionally, the modern young lady finds herself 
bound according to law by an engagement made for her 
when she was not long out of the cradle. In these days 
of freedom (judging by a case which was tried in the local 
courts a few months back), escape is easy. 

The girl appeared on the scenes with the man whom she 
wished to marry, and the man who wished to marry her, 
and to whom, moreover, she was legally bound. 

" I want liberty," she said. 

" Do you desire this woman ? " asked the judge of the 
would-be bridegroom. He assented. 

" But does she not belong to the other man ? " 

" China is now a Republic," came the answer, " and 
we are free to act as we will ! " 

" What have you to say ? " the judge continued, 
addressing the rival. 



io 4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" The girl belongs to our family. We have given money 
for her ! " he replied. 

" I will soon settle that question," replied the judge, 
and turning to the girl's lover he said, " Give this man 
some money and the girl is yours ! " 

A few dollars were handed over, and the case closed 
amidst general satisfaction ! 

If there is ground for the complaint in Western lands 
that the schoolmaster teaches for school rather than for 
life, how much more might this be said in China. The 
marvel is that Chinese boys turn out as well as they do. 
One realises that with such good material to work upon 
what splendid results might be achieved with proper 
training and advantages. In a Chinese home, as a general 
rule, the boys follow their own inclinations. One inquires 
why a sick child does not take his medicine, why a lazy 
child does not learn his lessons, why a tired child does not 
go to bed, and the answer is always the same — " Ta buh 
ken " (he is not willing), and there is an end of it. The 
elders sigh or smile according to their temperament. 
They ignore their own responsibility, and the fact that 
they might, if they wished, alter things to suit their own 
convenience. 

Later on, when it becomes a question of school, the 
little sons conform to custom with surprising adapta- 
bility, and the time-honoured saying — " Secure an educa- 
tion and become an official " throws a glamour over the 
" Hall of Instruction." 

Who in China would " plough with a pen," or in other 
words, be a schoolmaster ? 

Across the lane at the back of our house old Li Sien 
Seng sits through the day in the midst of a chorus of some 



FLOWER LAMPS AND LEARNING HALLS 105 

thirty voices mumbling, chanting, and yelling from a 
varied assortment of lesson books. The great point to 
be observed is noise. Concentration of thought is not 
required or indeed expected. On occasions each pupil 
tries to chant louder than his neighbour, or to shriek in a 
high treble whilst others take the bass. 

Unless they learn aloud, they cannot learn at all, they 
tell us. Besides which, the teacher maintains that there 
is no middle course, and unless his pupils " give tongue," 
so to speak, they will either sit in idleness or " play the 
monkey." 

Small wonder that so many adults, who profess to 
" recognise character " (read), can sing through one page 
of literature after another with only the most rudi- 
mentary conception of its meaning. " If you do not 
repeat your task for three days, brambles will grow in 
your mouth," goes the saying. Surely the empty forms 
and symbols, which play so large a part in the lives of 
the Sons of Han, are fostered by these parrot-like recita- 
tions which, in many cases, have constituted the only 
education of their early days. 

A new word signifying to " educate " rather than to 
" instruct " has been coined with many others to supply 
the modern requirements of these enlightened days. 
Western pedagogic methods are gaining ground, and 
most of the new books deal with Western subjects. 
Arithmetic, geography, elementary science, and so forth 
are (in Chinese phraseology) stored away in the pupil's 
abdomen, and the pendulum has swung so far in the other 
direction that the old classics, the Confucian analects, 
the Doctrine of the Mean, the works of Mencius are ignored 
by all but the few. 



CHAPTER IX 
Fragrant Dust and the Precious Ones 

As young Wang with his pearl rings and his satchel 
came to the English class this morning, he was accosted 
by the somewhat discouraging remark : " You are look- 
ing very ugly to-day " (viz., you are not looking at all 
well, but in Chinese the one word contains both mean- 
ings). His appearance is certainly somewhat sickly, 
especially when combined with this habit of his of emit- 
ting a prolonged yawn every few minutes. He goes to 
bed early, he tells us, and gets up late. The Chinese have 
a saying that " too much sleep brings sickness." Young 
Wang's life, as indeed the lives of so many " gilded 
youths " in China, is singularly sedentary. 

Few take any exercise of any kind, except, perhaps, a 
dilatory stroll through the streets. There seems indeed 
to be no attractive form of exercise to take. By old- 
fashioned folk, games are not encouraged. " There 
is no profit in play," goes the approved saying. They 
have indeed heard of tennis and cricket. Lu has even 
seen them played in " the hub of the universe," Shanghai, 
and describes them to the others, who smile pityingly. 
They know that these fatiguing occupations are in vogue in 
some of the Western schools and colleges, but they can see 
no amusement in either except possibly to the spectators. 

In the books of the ancients it is recorded that football 
was once played in China, first of all with a ball stuffed 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 107 

with hair, later on with an inflated bladder covered with 
leather ; the goal resembled a triumphal arch in shape, 
but the game could hardly have been a matter of pure 
recreation, as it is written that though the victors were 
rewarded with flowers and fruit, and sometimes silver 
bowls and brocades, " the captain of the losing team was 
flogged." * 

In those " good old days " one hears of polo as a game 
played before the Emperor, in which even women were 
sometimes allowed to take part, but only at a distinct 
disadvantage, being mounted, so it is said, on donkeys. 

" What do you do all day ? " I inquired of Lu and Wang 
on one of the many occasions, when they professed to 
have had no time to prepare their translation work. 

Lu proffered the explanation in English that they were 
busy because " their friends were too many," and Wang 
handed me a slip of paper on which were inscribed four 
Chinese characters : " books, drawing, music, chess," 
but a direct answer as to whether he himself dabbled in 
the four polite arts was not forthcoming. At the end of 
my inquiries, I was as much in the dark as ever as to my 
pupils' means of recreation. Direct answers, whether in 
matters trivial or otherwise, are contrary to the custom of 
the country. Thus one small boy of the household when 
asked why he is beginning to undress so early explains 
that he " is trying not to sleep slowly," in other words 
" get to bed quickly," and the servant who has hastily 
removed a pan of hot charcoal says in answer to inquiries, 
not that the woodwork was catching fire as this would be 
the surest way to bring about disaster, but that " he 
feared there might be some affair." 

* " Civilisation of China," H. A. Giles. 



108 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

At certain holiday seasons theatricals in the court- 
yards of the temples, and at various stately buildings 
belonging to provincial guilds, form a diversion to the 
daily monotony of the life of the pleasure-seeker. To one 
of those jollifications two miles from the city, Wang and 
Lu were carried in their sedan chairs. To ride on horse- 
back would have been too much trouble, and to walk, an 
unnecessary exertion, when coolies could be hired to 
carry one. It would have done young Wang good to 
have adopted the ingenious plan of a famous Chinese 
statesman in the fourth century who, wishing to inure 
himself to hardness, and to exercise his muscles without 
losing a moment of his valuable time, carried with him a 
hundred bricks on his daily walk to and from his private 
apartments to the Courts of Justice. 

Amongst the fashionable youth of the city, printed 
cards in foreign style are gradually superseding the red 
sheets of paper used as visiting cards in former days. 
Lu and Wang and their friends, following the craze of 
the moment, desire not only foreign cards but foreign 
names. A certain Mr. Uin Fan applied to us through a 
mutual acquaintance for assistance in the matter. Why 
not keep his own name we suggested, following the 
example of Yuan Shi Kai and other great men, but no, 
though unable to speak a word of the language, he desired 
an English name. Would a translation of his Chinese 
name suit his fancy ? Mr. Flowery Cloud, for instance. 
No, nothing would content him but the real thing, so 
finally Uin Fan became " Ian Fane " and all was peace. 

Lu and Wang, I am glad to say, remained Lu and 
Wang till the end of the chapter, and satisfied their idea 
of the fitness of things by letting their first names be 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRFXIOUSONES 109 

represented by initials, whilst Lu, as a finishing touch, 
had his photo printed on the back of his card ! Other 
Western customs are gaining ground, and Lu and Wang 
have discarded their rag and cloth shoes for creaking 
leather boots. The creak, alas ! is by no means a point 
of objection, for does it not proclaim to the world at large 
the interesting fact that the boots are not only foreign 
but new ? 

Now and again Wang, who is, I am told, the owner of 
beautiful terraced gardens, brings me an offering of 
flowers. " We are so fond of flowers," say the Chinese, 
" that a single spray is considered sufficient for a bouquet, 
and a bouquet is thought to be vulgar." 

In the winter the offering would take the form of a tiny 
branch of the Lah mei Hwa, with blossoms like yellow 
stars on a leafless bough which blooms in mid-winter and 
is of rare fragrance. 

In the early spring and later on, magenta-coloured 
peonies were the usual gift. Peonies are, of all flowers, one 
of the most prized in a Chinese garden ; it is said that 
there are 240 different species of them in the land. The 
" king of flowers," it is called, and is said to be the emblem 
of wealth, and much care is taken over the cultivation of 
the plant. All who can do so, feed it with fishbones and 
sprinkle the soil with fish-water. Just before the flowers 
come into bloom those, who are punctilious in these 
matters, will even go so far as to worship this symbol of 
wealth by the burning of sticks of incense placed around 
the sacred roots. 

A famous Chinese gardener of past days, when asked 
the secret of his success, said that all he did was to " study 
the individual character of the plant and treat it accord- 



no CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

ingly." One wondered if the inquirer felt much en- 
lightened. The Chinese love of flowers and skill in their 
management is well-known ; and the little secluded 
garden shut in by high walls, is a spot much beloved of 
its owner, who, however, would be horrified at the 
thought of working in it himself. 

" If a home has not a garden and an old tree, I see not 
whence the everyday joys of life are to come,'' said Chen, 
the " Flower Hermit," who wrote a book on gardening 
more than a hundred years ago. 

Judging by the incidents recorded in the pages of 
Chinese history, much has been expected sometimes of 
Chinese gardeners. When the extravagant ruler, Yang 
Di, sat on the throne, immense gardens were laid out 
around the palace, and orders given that the flowering 
trees were never to be without blossoms. So skilful were 
those who attended to these matters that the artificial 
flowers by which the real ones were replaced when 
necessity arose, were so beautifully made as to escape 
detection ! 

To a thrifty Chinese in these utilitarian days " a prim- 
rose a primrose is to him and something more." Sunflower 
seeds and lotus seeds are prized as sweetmeats, chrysan- 
themums and fish make a delicious stew, lily bulbs in 
syrup, an excellent dessert, water-lily seeds are con- 
sidered a specific against infectious diseases. Camelia 
seeds produce valued lotion for the hair. The petals of 
orange lilies can be made into a most palatable vegetable, 
and probably to the " Mandarins of the kettle " (the 
cooks) there are few items in a florist's catalogue which 
could not be turned to double advantage. 

My pupil Wang has invited us one day to go and see his 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 1 1 1 

garden. The " many coloured spring is here," as Po Djii 
the poet said. 

"The secrets of the scented hearts of flowers, 
Are whispered through the air." 

The hot sunshine, bleaching the stones in the courtyard, 
brings out the heavy scent of the blossoms of the pumelo 
tree pressed up against the corner of the house, and 
accentuates the fragrance of the green orchids in the 
pots by the doorway. The red roses climbing the walls 
in eager haste to get away from the sunny court, and 
tumbling back branch over branch in their confusion, 
are purpling with the heat and growing limp. There was 
no shade in the courtyard, and the gardens of young 
Wang sounded more attractive, but we were doomed to 
disappointment. Young Wang came to meet us, and 
escorted us across the large and dimly-lit guest hall, 
which at a first casual glance resembled some public place 
of business. Furriers were turning over the winter furs of 
the family at a long table preparatory, probably, to storing 
them for the summer. Some tailors not far off were busy 
cutting out new garments, several ladies of the household 
looked on from the background, presumably superin- 
tending matters with the help and advice of sundry 
serving-women, who acted as spokeswomen. Two or 
three children, or probably slave girls, an elderly man- 
servant or so, who may possibly have been " poor rela- 
tions," helped to make up the party. 

Young Wang's mother, who had by now appeared on 
the scenes, conducted us by a dark and musty passage 
round corners and up steps past untidy store-rooms, and 
dim visions of hams and herbs and mouldy lanterns 



ii2 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

hanging from dusty beams, to the upper guest room, a 
modern apartment redolent of the new era. Plate glass 
doors, and plenty of them, had taken the place of the 
carved lattice work and paper panes of other days. Blue 
landscapes in woven velvet, " made in Japan," graced 
the walls, and an octagonal centre table was carefully 
shrouded in a dust sheet — the last new thing in foreign 
tablecloths ! For the rest — tiny tea tables alternating 
with substantial chairs, and flanked by spittoons, were 
placed opposite to each other in two long rows down the 
centre of the room and still savoured of the old style of 
things. A couple of exquisite old porcelain jars, " blue 
as the sky after rain when seen between the clouds," 
stood in front of the inevitable foreign mirror. 

The glass doors opened on to the first of the gardens, 
but, alas ! it possessed none of the glories of a garden. 
There were no flower beds, no lawns, no trees, and no 
stone bridges, spanning Liliputian lakes by the side of 
fantastic rocks, made to represent miniature mountains, 
so dear to the Chinese garden lover. 

There was nothing to be seen but tiers of shelves lined 
with pot plants in a paved enclosure surrounded by 
" open work " walls of ornamental stone and tile — in 
short, the place might have passed for a mammoth green- 
house, minus the glass. True, many of the roses and other 
plants were the choicest of their kind, and some of the 
elaborate pots might have graced the shelves of a 
porcelain cabinet. We passed through into the garden 
beyond, but it was a second edition of the first, a trifle 
less formal perhaps and considerably less tidy, and here 
dwarfed pine trees and maples were shown us with pride. 

An interesting account is given in a book more than a 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 113 

hundred years old of the methods by which these dwarf 
trees, so dear to the hearts of both Chinese and Japanese, 
are cultivated. 

" From a bough which bears fruit they (the Chinese 
gardeners) remove a circular band of the bark, about an 
inch wide, covering the bare part with mould that is kept 
in place by a piece of matting. Above it is suspended 
either a pot or a horn with small holes at the bottom 
through which the water, falling drop by drop, keeps 
up the humidity of the soil. The branch pushes out 
roots above the place from which the bark has been 
peeled. . . 

" This operation is performed in spring. In the autumn 
the branch is cut off from the parent tree and trans- 
planted either into a jar or into the open ground, and it 
produces fruit the following year. 

" If they wish the tree to appear small and decayed, it is 
coated at different times with successive layers of molasses 
or treacle which attracts millions of ants. These attack 
the bark of the tree and give to it a look of age." 

In a garden on a still higher level, bushes of the Lab 
mei Hwa and other flowering shrubs had been allowed 
to grow beyond the pot stage. There was, as goes without 
saying, a white azalea, which preserves a house from 
fire ! By this time the lack of order, inevitable in all 
things Chinese, was sorely apparent, and accumulations of 
necessary but unsightly oddments, usually connected 
with a gardener's tool-house or potting-shed, cropped up 
here and there. But the best bit of the garden lay still 
before us — the bit which did not count and into which 
apparently nobody but eccentric outside kingdom folk 
would ever care to go. We espied it from below and 



ii4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

climbed up a flight of disused steps to get there. Rank 
grass, weeds, remnants of an overgrown vegetable patch 
covered the ground, but overhead a bower of peach trees 
and of loquats, a tangle of grape vines, bamboos and 
orange trees shaded us from the blaze of the sun, and 
the faint fragrance of the white pumelo blossoms filled 
the air. 

For a cool spot, however, on a hot day, young Wang 
had a better suggestion. Behind the guest room, with 
the plate glass windows, there was a shaded court into 
which little sunlight ever crept. A great stone tank, 
full of cold clear water and darting goldfish, occupied 
the centre in a setting of palms and ferns of stately 
growth. Cold stone and dripping water and the shadow 
of green leaves — what could be more pleasant on a day 
of summer heat ? 

My pupils, Lu and Wang, and a later addition to the 
class in a youth called Chang, who, having graduated at 
the Government school in Western subjects, was con- 
sidered quite a scholar, have presented me with their 
photographs. 

The " shower forth of likenesses " does a thriving 
trade here as elsewhere in China, and in these days of 
foreign fashions, the photographer is looked up to as one 
who is well versed in these intricate matters. 

Inside his studio efforts have been made to create a 
Western atmosphere. A long tea table, resembling the 
one at the " mad hatter's tea party," occupies the end 
of the room. A marcella counterpane does duty as a 
tablecloth, for, according to 5 oriental taste, marcella 
counterpanes are especially adapted for this purpose; 
cups and saucers, not of dainty native porcelain, but of 




MY PUPILS LU, WANG AND CHANG, PRESENTED ME WITH THEIR 
PHOTOGRAPHS. 




IN THE CENTRE SITS THE DESCENDANT OF CONFUCIUS, 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 1 1 5 

cheap German ware, are placed up and down the table 
in long rows as for a school treat tea. Samples of the 
photographer's work in foreign frames are hung in untidy 
profusion on the walls, and amongst them various gar- 
ments of ready-made costumes (for the benefit of custo- 
mers who prefer to be photographed in other people's 
clothes) are dangling from hooks and nails. Two foreign 
suits are in great request, so much so that the collars and 
shirt fronts belonging to them are greasy and grey with 
use. The foreign suit is a bait by which both soldiers 
and civilians are attracted into the photographer's web. 
It has never occurred to him to add the luxury of a 
dressing room, so the changes of costume go on in public. 
A " vulgar " bouquet in a foreign glass vase, some walk- 
ing sticks and English books complete the mise en scene. 
On my arrival on the scenes the other day, I hesitated, 
seeing a soldier's uniform scattered on the floor, whilst its 
owner was struggling with strange European garments in 
the background. 

" It is of no consequence," the photographer's mother 
assured me, " please enter." 

Strange ! that one of these outside kingdom folk, who 
must be so accustomed to the peculiarities of photo- 
grapher's studios should show surprise or hesitancy ! 
That was evidently her thought as I politely insisted on 
lingering in the outer room till the soldiers were once 
again in their ordinary attire. 

My pupil Chang, the graduate, took us round the two 
Government schools of the city the other day. The large 
airy rooms with more windows than wall space were 
characteristic of the new order of things. The black- 
boards, the modern maps and charts, clean and new, 



n6 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

stood out in bold contrast to the dusty Confucian tablets, 
before which sticks of incense were smouldering sulkily 
as though conscious that they had fallen on evil days. 
Along the corridor were other significant signs of the 
times in the rows of rifles, sham rifles certainly, to be used 
in drill, but drill is one of the important features of the 
curriculum, and some schools for small boys in the pro- 
vince have practically given up most other subjects in its 
favour. The delighted pupils in their German caps and 
miniature uniforms fancy themselves but one step 
removed from the genuine article. 

Chang, anxious to show us all the modern improve- 
ments in his own school invited us to see the bathrooms, 
truly an innovation, but distinctly disappointing at close 
quarters. In a room with a mud floor, not unlike a large 
fowl-house, stood a solitary wooden tub of the kind which, 
when occupied, allows of no margin. Evidently it was 
considered a work of supererogation to provide a clean 
apartment for people needing baths. 

The pupils, nearly 400 in all, varying in age from ten 
years to twenty and over, the sons, many of them, of well- 
to-do parents, get their schooling for nothing. The 
boarders, however, are required to pay about a pound a 
year for their " rice." 

Instruction is given in most Western subjects from 
English to singing. The English master, however, could 
hardly be called proficient. He had acquired his vocabu- 
lary from a Japanese, the Japanese, in his turn, had 
" picked it up " from a fellow countryman, who, so it was 
said, had actually studied the language at its source, viz., 
in America, and could moreover speak the dialect used 
in England ! By going through so many processes 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 117 

English as taught in the " City of the River Orchid " had 
become almost a new tongue. 

To a son of Han, accustomed to a language in which all 
parts of speech are interchangeable, the English idiom 
presents many difficulties. Therefore, a pupil, who pro- 
mises to exert himself in order to make progress with his 
studies, writes as follows : — 

" I is must will use work to exhaust one's strength to 
investigate may to beg advancement." He mentions that 
the weather is hot. " So are warm I could not any to do 
matter," but he allows that he is well. " I am both fresh 
and sound," and hopes his teacher " will not doubt that 
he is lazy " — meaning, of course, the exact opposite. 

" The spring-time has feet," say the Chinese, and the 
hills, which a week or so ago were innocent of flowers, save 
for a few sprigs of wild and scentless lilac sticking out of 
the ground like spikes, are now in the words of a Chinese 
poet : — 

" Girdled with ivy, 
And robed with wisteria, 
Cloaked with the orchid, 
And crowned with azalea." 

The azaleas, or the " red sunset flower," as the people 
call them, turn the sunny slopes of the hillsides into a 
gorgeous blaze of rose-pink blossoms, shadowed here and 
there by a slender pine in a bower of white wisteria. At 
the foot of one of those " sunset " hills stands the little 
temple for sick horses. Two prancing steeds, evidently 
in the best of health, are painted on the outer walls to 
encourage, no doubt, the poor diseased creatures which 
are brought there to be cured by the gods. A horse, so 
runs the superstition, has the power of seeing demons and 



n8 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

at the sight of them he stands petrified with fear, whereas 
the donkey is supposed to be afraid of nothing. 

Foxes abound on the " red sunset hill and make raids 
on the farmers' homesteads with impunity, for there are 
not many who care to meddle with these weird mysterious 
" beings," whose power in the land is so great. Many cases 
here, as elsewhere in China, have been known of fox pos- 
session and of cruel deaths brought about by the malady. 

All foxes are said to be sagacious — and an official who 
has a difficult law case to solve will often seek wisdom of 
the fox. In some of the Yamens there is a small building 
set apart for the worship of this strange creature, an 
empty building save for the incense table, and, pre- 
sumably, the invisible spirit of the animal, in whose 
honour the candles are lit and the wine presented. 

The azaleas on the hillsides are seldom allowed to grow 
into tall bushes, for firewood is expensive, and even 
azalea boughs can be turned into fuel. One meets peasant 
after peasant carrying his bundles of azalea branches 
starred with rose- pink buds, not for the adornment of 
his house, but for the cooking of the evening rice ! 

All things in China must be turned to a practical use, 
if not for fuel, then for food or for medicine, and on those 
warm spring days the village children set to work to 
gather the wild vegetables growing by the wayside, chief 
among which are the tiny wild onions, and in the shops 
the young twigs of the cedrela Chinensis are being sold 
as some of the delicacies of the season. This " scent of 
spring " tree as they call it, has a flavour, when cooked, 
of the most delicate kind of leek. Later on, the petals of 
the orange lilies and the stalks of balsams will make other 
vegetable dishes equally delicious. 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 119 

Just now, the cooks at the food stalls in the crowded 
city streets, are busy boiling snails, and on the rubbish 
heaps outside the doors of wealthy mansions, snail shells, 
by the score, give evidence of late festivities. 

Last autumn the coolies jogging along the winding 
paths across the fields were, many of them, carrying that 
which at first sight looked like white band boxes slung 
on either end of their bamboo poles. Then it turned out 
to be the tallow from the tallow trees. Now in these first 
warm days of spring, soft downy chickens just hatched, 
"middled in open baskets, have taken the place of the 
tallow. They are cheap — three eggs a piece and their 
number seems to be legion. By hundreds and by 
thousands, day after day, they are brought along the 
country roads and sold to the country people and the 
townsfolk. 

I looked at them with interest, having been with them 
all on the eve of their birthday, some ten miles of? in a 
little village, hiding in a dip at the foot of the wooded 
hills, divided by the fields of wheat and golden rape from 
the river. 

For weeks at a time " Dai Giao Si " the teacher sister, 
lives and works amongst the people of the village, 
occupying the tiny upper storey of one of the small bare 
houses — beautiful on the day of our visit with boughs 
of geranium-pink azaleas. 

The incubators, of primitive design, which had been in 
existence probably scores, if not hundreds, of years before 
such things were known in Western lands, occupied a 
large barn-like building at the end of the village street. 

As we stepped through the door, which was hastily 
closed to behind us, the heat of invisible fires on every 



izo CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

side turned the atmosphere into that of an oven. Stokers, 
bare to the waist and streaming with moisture, gathered 
round us inquiringly. Ah ! we were twelve hours too 
soon, they said. We should have come early the next 
morning and nearer the time at which the chickens were 
due to arrive. We could see, however, what there was to 
see ! 

Down the length of the long barn, the greater part of 
the floor space was occupied by three wooden platforms, 
one a few feet above the other, each one covered with 21 
thick layer of eggs, 60,000 in all. Here and there a pre- 
mature arrival was breaking through its shell and in g? 
few hours the whole of the 60,000 would follow suit, and 
the men described to us, how at this juncture they were 
kept busy, throwing the newly-hatched chickens, four at a 
time, into the coolies' baskets to be carried post haste 
through the country for sale. For two days, fortunately 
for those concerned, no food would be necessary. 

On the floor at either end of the building, erections, 
akin to old-fashioned thatched bee-hives in outward 
shape, but twice as large, were packed with eggs still in 
the early stages — 200 eggs in a hive and these were kept 
heated night and day by charcoal fires. In all there were 
over 125,000 eggs in the building at that moment. 

We were shown a hole, the size of an egg, tunnelled in 
the wall, and letting in a tiny shaft of daylight. Each 
egg is held there for inspection and the concentrated 
light shining through gives evidence of its quality. 

No one could offer any suggestion with regard to the 
date of the first incubator. The industry, as far as they 
knew, had always been in existence. When a small 
chicken can be bought for one halfpenny or less, one is 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 121 

hardly surprised at the numerous cocks and hens to be 
met with in the city. Many of them eke out the scanty 
living provided by penurious owners, by sallying forth 
in less frequented streets to gather crumbs from the rich 
man's table. The risk of losing them is considerably 
minimised by the ingenious plan by which each bird 
wears, so to speak, his " house colours." Thus Mr. Bas' 
poultry are painted from neck to tail a bright magenta. 
Mrs. Li's, on the contrary, are green, and those belonging 
to the old man at the end of the lane, are daubed with 
scarlet, whereas our friends' poultry just round the 
corner are streaked with pale blue. 

The hatching of chickens, however, is but a small and 
unimportant industry compared to that of the rearing of 
silkworms. 

The other day when sitting in the guest hall of the 
house of Djao-Djoh, one of the school girls, partaking of 
tea and hard-boiled eggs, our hostess, a dapper little 
woman in trim " gwadz " of dark blue silk, was requested 
to show the foreign guest a few of the young worms of the 
season. She agreed with alacrity, and produced them 
forthwith from the inner recesses of her upper garment, 
where they were kept for warmth. For some days she 
had " worn " the sheets of rough paper sprinkled with 
eggs, but the eggs were hatched now, and she displayed 
to view a flat box half-filled with faded mulberry leaf 
crumbled almost to a powder. On further inspection one 
perceived that only some of the crumbled particles were 
inanimate and that these were being rapidly devoured 
by the rest. " In about six weeks' time," she said, 
" they will climb the hill." 

" And how many have you this year ? " 



122 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" How many ! " She was not sure. " Some tens of 
thousands. The teacher mother must come and see 
them when they are bigger." 

The next day a man with silkworms for sale appeared 
on the scenes. He unwrapped a cloth, and produced some 
sheets of rough brown paper, so thickly speckled with 
tiny dark brown moving clots that the paler brown of the 
paper was hardly visible. " The eggs are just hatched," 
he said. As long as the baby-worms were left in the 
condition in which they had emerged from the eggs, 
that is to say, with a tiny bit of white substance attached 
to the tail end of the microscopic body, it was not 
necessary to provide them with food, for they remained 
presumably in a state of " arrested development." Our 
friend sold his young worms by the ounce ; the tenth 
part of an ounce cost 24 cash — about one halfpenny — 
and one ounce of grubs, if carefully reared should produce 
from 150 to 160 ounces of silk. 

The daily meals, however, for these tiny morsels, 
especially where their numbers run into tens of thousands, 
is no light matter. In early days their digestion is quickly 
upset, and from every mulberry leaf the sinews must be 
removed, and the remainder carefully chopped and re- 
chopped until a mulberry leaf mince, neither too wet nor 
too dry, has been provided for their delectation. Those 
who are rearing worms for profit, observe rules of this 
kind most punctiliously. Later on, as the worms increase 
in stature, their appetite becomes prodigious. Fortu- 
nately, however, their digestive powers also improve and 
mulberry leaves can be served au nature!, provided they 
are freshly gathered and not wet. Meals at constant 
intervals throughout the day do not suffice, and their 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 123 

owners have to sit up at night or provide them with 
night attendants in order to supply these omnivorous 
feeders with continual nourishment. 

Those who have studied the habits of the creatures 
for hundreds of years (according to historical records 
since the time of the " Yellow Emperor " more than 
2000 b.c.) assure one that silkworms observe one day in 
seven as a day of rest, and sleep steadily through the 
twenty-four hours. Some, however, keep one day and 
some another, which is unfortunate for the caterers who 
are therefore never off duty. 

Towards the end of the sixth week Djao-Djoh an- 
nounced that the ceremony of " climbing the hill " had 
commenced and we were invited to come and see. She 
added mysteriously that no noise must be made and no 
words used which were not good to hear ( <( buh hao ting "), 
a somewhat surprising piece of advice to be offered by a 
hobbledehoy school girl to a teacher mother of dignified 
demeanour. 

We soon perceived, however, that this was no ordinary 
occasion. A subdued atmosphere reigned in the house, 
as we silently followed Djao-Djoh's mother up the dimly- 
lit stairs and entered the darkened rooms on the first 
floor, one room leading into another, large empty rooms, 
save for the humble spinners of silk. 

Here and there sheaves of rice straw erected in tubs 
and pails or propped against the walls made " hills " or 
bushes for the benefit of the climbers. Clinging to the 
straw near the top of the sheaves, or halfway up, or even 
nearer to the ground, one and another had come to a 
standstill to " vomit " the precious silk. Tucked away 
inside the fluffy balls of white or golden yellow the worms 



124 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

themselves were no longer visible. In each room stood 
a small pan of glowing charcoal, as warmth at this stage 
is of all things necessary — warmth and quiet and a " dim 
religious " light. 

" Here are the precious ones," said our guide. " Can 
you not see the precious ones ? I will open the shutters 
just a very, very little so that you may see the precious 
ones more clearly." 

In every other sentence she made use of the words 
" precious ones," laying stress on the term of endearment. 
It was all part of the performance, for silkworms, we dis- 
covered, are peculiarly sensitive at this critical moment 
of their lives, and will take umbrage at any discourteous 
language, whereas polite phrases will work wonders, and 
induce them to spin with a will. 

Here and there real flowers, and bits of red silk, and 
strips of red paper are placed in conspicuous positions 
in token of good luck, and also, presumably, by way of 
encouragement to the tiny workers. 

By refusing nourishment they give the first sign of 
their desire to " climb the hill " and set to work. 

" And when they have finished spinning ? " we asked, 
" what happens then ? " 

Whereupon Djao-Djoh's mother dropped her voice to 
so low a whisper that we could not hear what she said. 
It was explained afterwards, when there were no " listen- 
ing " silkworms to be offended by the words, or frightened 
into inaction by the dread prospect which awaited them, 
that a death by slow torture in a cauldron of boiling water 
would be their final end. 

My next sight of silkworms was in this piteous condi- 
tion. A countrywoman sat at her wheel briskly winding 



FRAGRANT DUST AND THE PRECIOUS ONES 125 

off the silken threads from a seething mass of once fluffy 
balls which bobbed up and down in great iron pots of 
boiling water over a fierce charcoal fire. 

When the silk was all removed, the poor dead remains 
would form a palatable dish, and the woman at the wheel 
scrunched one or two between her teeth with evident 
relish. 

"They are best when served in oil," some one suggested, 
but to those engaged in the trade this is considered 
unlucky, so much so that the next generation of silk- 
worms, incensed at such treatment of their ancestors, will 
decline to make any silk that is worth having. 

Why they should draw the line at oil and " wink at " 
being eaten, does not appear, but according to the books 
of the ancients the scent of oil is one of the seven things 
held in abhorence by these fastidious creatures. They 
dislike smoke ; they object to wine and vinegar, and can- 
not stand the scent of musk or oil. They abominate 
damp leaves or hot leaves, and have a peculiar aversion 
from any one pounding in a mortar, and (though this 
seems unnecessarily faddy) from seeing people clad in 
mourning. 

In India, where the maxim " Take not the life you 
have no power to give " is held sacred by many, tepid 
water is used instead of boiling water and the creatures 
allowed to escape. The Chinese, however, aver that the 
silk comes off in better condition, and also more easily, 
when the cocoons are boiled. 



CHAPTER X 

The Dragon House * 

The proclamation ordaining that all who, after three 
weeks' grace, steadfastly persist in smoking opium will be 
shot, still hangs on the city walls, but like a tin cat in a 
cornfield, it no longer alarms. 

It is some weeks ago now since whispered words at 
the Yamen announced the fact (in confidence) that 
authorities at headquarters, fearing the result of such 
drastic legislation in these unsettled days, had cancelled 
the first order. This prudent measure was not proclaimed 
publicly, however, and the scarecrow remained intact. 

Stricter methods were in vogue at the Yamen. Num- 
bers had increased in the Marshalsea, but some had left 
on their own initiative. No wonder ! for escape was easy 
enough under the circumstances, as no locked doors 
barred the way except at night-time. 

A good part of the ramshackle building was to be 
rebuilt, and already housebreakers were at work demolish- 
ing some of the outer rooms which had given promise for 
some time past of tumbling to pieces of their own accord, 
and seemed to be merely kept in place by clinging cob- 
webs and glutinous grime. The two characters " Djiah- 
Ma " the name of a military general of olden times, 
famous for his power over demons, were inscribed on slips 
of red paper and pasted near the base of the walls in 
order to keep at bay the earth gods, who might otherwise 
take offence at this disturbance of the soil. 

* Gaol in Yamen. 



THE DRAGON HOUSE 127 

Meanwhile the unfortunate opium prisoners had been 
gathered into one room, and, for the sake of security, and 
also no doubt with a view to economy of space, had been 
compressed into two wooden cages. 

True, they were large cages, some twenty feet by 
twelve, small enough, however, when apportioned out to 
seventy or eighty grown men. 

The bearded idol in his shrine had been taken down to 
make room for them, and, with the exception of a narrow 
aisle down the centre occupied by the jailer's family and 
the visitors, the greater part of the floor space was taken 
up by the new erections. They might almost have been 
cattle pens, but for the fact that they were roofed in 
overhead by heavy wooden rails. 

With the exception of the empty rice basins slung on 
ropes attached to the bars, and a couple of necessary 
buckets, there were no accessories of any kind. Men of a 
respectable class were herded together with coolies of a 
low stamp, and amongst them stood the king of the 
beggars — a sorry-looking individual whose profession in 
life made filthy rags and matted locks a necessary part 
of his costume, though he was popularly supposed to be a 
man of considerable private means. 

The prisoners peering out at us between the bars 
seemed, strangely enough, by no means discouraged by 
the situation, and some of them were even disposed to 
look on life with merriment. 

A few had already broken off the opium habit, and were 
merely waiting until their friends or relations should 
come forward with money for the fine, and for other 
prison expenses. 

As the weather grew warmer, and numbers increased, 



128 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

the condition of the cages became more and more in- 
sanitary and repulsive, so much so, that the cheerfulness, 
not to say the levity of some of the poor unfortunates, 
became irritating rather than commendable. There 
was something almost inhuman in the callousness dis- 
played. 

Some few, however, callous no longer, were huddled 
on the floor behind the bars, sick with fever, and more 
than one complained bitterly of the vermin. One stal- 
wart fellow, following a custom not unusual amongst a 
certain non-fastidious class, was busily engaged in " weed- 
ing " one of his exceedingly ragged garments, and at each 
successful find popped the results of his labours into his 
mouth ! 

The elegant young official, in his immaculate gown of 
pale blue silk, who, with his immobile face and eye- 
brows permanently raised, condescended to be present 
during the medical examination of doubtful cases, was 
careful to keep clear of the cages, and objected to hearing 
complaints on the subject. The prisoners, he assured us, 
could, if they liked, gain their release any day by the 
payment of the fine. If they preferred to plead poverty, 
and remain where they were, that was their own business. 

It was easy to recognise a really wealthy individual on 
the occasion of these medical inspections, not indeed by 
the quality of his clothes or the length of his nails, but by 
the attitude of the onlookers, from the young man of the 
raised eyebrows to a certain Yamen underling, a gentle- 
man with " rat eyes," whose manner varied from moment 
to moment from an engaging suavity when face to face 
with Ba Giao Si, to a ferret-like sharpness when turned 
the other way. The test, a drop or so of blood in 



THE DRAGON HOUSE 129 

a solution of alcohol and apomorphine was almost 
" infallible " and many anxious eyes peered into the tiny 
cup to see for themselves the result, for the rich man was 
worth many thousands of dollars, and his conviction 
would mean possible pickings and certain perquisites 
for those in charge of the case. 

The countryside in these days is constantly scoured by 
parties of soldiers in search of opium crops, and a sub- 
stantial fine is levied on the owner at the rate of so much 
a mow * or a part of a mow. The soldiers go about their 
work, it is whispered rather too zealously, and an unfortu- 
nate tea-grower, not many miles away from this city, 
complained somewhat bitterly of his treatment at their 
hands. On the top of a hill in the midst of his tea planta- 
tion the emissaries of the law beheld an unmistakable 
opium plant. They measured off without more ado a 
mow of the land with the solitary opium poppy flaunting 
gaily in the centre. Naturally enough the owner of the 
property denied being even accessory to the act. A bird, 
it was suggested, had deposited the forbidden seed, but as 
somebody must be fined, and the bird was out of the 
question, the tea-planter would have to bear the responsi- 
bility. In the end, after much discussion on the subject 
at the Yamen, a slight reduction of the fine was agreed to ! 

Young Wang, with a smile, told me this morning of the 
shooting of a prisoner on the grass-strewn hill outside the 
city wall — not a grower of opium, f but a robber The 
executioner happened to be a bad shot, and had wounded 
his victim four times over before killing him. As I 
expressed my horror Wang continued to smile, probably 

* One mow = sixth part of an acre. 

t Opium growers are liable to the death penalty. 



130 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

more out of conformity to custom than from lack of 
sympathy. Although one never knows, for a Chinese 
seldom puts himself " in his neighbour's shoes," and 
often sheer inability to do so makes him curiously in- 
different to the sufferings of others. Only a few weeks ago, 
in a neighbouring city, two criminals, heavily fettered 
were ordered out to the execution ground to be strangled. 
More than a hundred soldiers followed, goading the poor 
miserable prisoners into a run, but with the ponderous 
chains around their ankles it was an impossibility to go 
at a quick pace. Forced on by their merciless guards 
they jerked along with painful hops and jumps, falling 
every now and again and struggling back to their 
feet. 

The crowd looked on with amusement, and two minor 
officials borne in their sedan chairs at the back of the 
procession laughed at the " comical " sight. 

It is only fair to add, however, that the Governor of the 
city when hearing of the proceeding, expressed regret, 
and thenceforward convicted prisoners were conveyed to 
the execution ground in sedan chairs. 

On the grass land outside the walls of the " City of the 
River Orchid," several robbers' coffins are lying in the 
open, worn and weather stained. We recognised them 
by the one chipped corner. The slips of wood lopped off 
are kept at the Yamen as a proof that the execution in 
question has indeed taken place, and the body of the 
criminal encoffined. 

Many a tragic story could be told of that " Terrace of 
Night " outside the city walls. The other day we passed 
the burial-place of a young and exceedingly gifted 
student, who, some years ago, had professed great interest 



THE DRAGON HOUSE 131 

in the " foreign religion," coming Sunday after Sunday 
to the services, and expounding to others with much 
apparent sincerity the doctrine of the Truth. 

But the day came when whispered reports reached 
the ears of the " teacher sister " denouncing the 
" earnest " student as an opium smoker and an evil 
liver. 

When faced with the matter, he indignantly denied 
the accusation and, seizing a knife, said he would 
prove nis innocence with his blood. Laying his hand 
on the table he chopped off a finger which fell bleeding 
to the floor. Yelling in a frenzy he flung himself down 
beside it. 

The " foreign teacher," seeing the uncontrolled state 
of mind in which he was in, left him to the care of his own 
relations, sending back, however, a couple of splints and 
some permanganate of potash, with which the old mother 
deftly put the finger back again in its place. But its 
owner, alas ! was not destined to need its use for manv 
more years. Abandoning himself to his profligate life he 
drifted from bad to worse, and before very long brought 
himself under suspicion of the authorities by the foul 
murder of a man. A gruesome tale was noised abroad of 
the victim's corpse, tied in a sack and borne by the 
assassins to the top of a lonely hill for burial, when the 
sack with its heavy burden overbalanced at the top of a 
ridge and bounded down the slope to the valley below. 
Thither the would-be grave diggers pursued it and 
tumbled it with nervous haste into a hole hurriedly 
excavated. 

But " eyes and ears " (spies) were not wanting. Soon 
after that the murderer and his accomplice were tracked 



132 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

down, tried and condemned. Without further delay 
they were shot on the grave-strewn hill outside the 
walls. 

That night the bodies lay out on the grass unburied, 
and those who passed that way the following morning 
shook their heads approvingly over the sight that met 
their gaze, and murmured that verily indeed this was the 
judgment of heaven, for one of the two men had been 
more than half-devoured by the dogs, and that one was the 
murderer, despite the fact that he was little more than skin 
and bone, whereas the body of the other who had merely 
given a hand in the burial on the hillside, had been left 
untouched by the scavengers, albeit he was large and 
fleshy. 

" Truly the gods are just," said one to the other, for 
to arrive in the nether world physically incomplete is 
(in China) the worst fate imaginable. 

Soldiers in these days enjoy the reflected glory of the 
" patriots " of the Revolution. They represent the new 
order of things and have acquired, through no merit of 
their own, a position of power which, alas ! many of them 
abuse. 

The high rate of pay (ten dollars a month) has attracted 
many men into their ranks, men — who, in the old days 
would have looked down on the profession with contempt. 
It is said that in very many instances the wages are actually 
paid in full, another great innovation, but one wily 
official in a place that shall be nameless has hit on a plan 
which is regarded as eminently satisfactory to all con- 
cerned. He has recently enlisted a large number of 
elderly men who fully concurred with his proposal that 
as they were getting old and past work they must be 



THE DRAGON HOUSE 133 

content with six dollars instead of ten. It was most 
reasonable, as every one agreed, and the official, as goes 
without saying, pocketed the extra $4 a man. 

The Army, even in these days of peace, is a goose that 
lays many golden eggs. The other day an enterprising 
servant desiring to " better himself," took a situation as 
cook to the captain of a company of ten. Roused one 
night by his master to get him something to eat, he 
seized the first thing that offered, viz., a loaded rifle, with 
which he poked the fire. Not unnaturally the gun went 
off, causing the instant death of the cook. Now the 
Government allowance to the family of a soldier killed on 
duty is 300 dollars. True, the man was only a cook, but 
under the circumstances he could easily be reported as a 
soldier. The official himself would see to the matter. He 
did so and finally divided the spoils with the man's 
mother who was thankful to get any compensation 
at all. 

There has been much consternation lately amongst the 
people of the countryside over the new " men-pai " 
(literally door board, giving number of inhabitants in 
each house). It is an order from headquarters. All who 
are not natives of the place must be guaranteed as 
respectable by those who are. Unfortunately, however, 
doubt exists as to the qualifications of a resident. To 
have lived seventeen years in the same town, or even 
seventy, does not count, if it is known that the family 
came originally from some other part of the country. 

A census has been taken in China from time imme- 
morial. No wonder, however, that people look upon the 
old records with some suspicion. At one period only 
" taxable people " were included, and officials, slaves, 



134 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

persons over sixty, the weak and the sick, etc., etc., 
were omitted ! 

In the thirteenth century, however, details were gone 
into more fully, and the head of a household was required 
to state on his " door board " not only his own name, and 
that of his wife, and his children, his slaves and other 
inmates of his house, but also the number of his animals ! 



CHAPTER XI 

The Gem-Hill City 

Deborah, my travelling companion of other days, has 
arrived on the scenes in order to join me on a little journey 
from this province of Chekiang to the Po Yang lake in 
Kiangsi. 

On the eve of our departure in one of the brown-hooded 
boats, the dark waters of the river were studded with 
fairy lights from shore to shore — monster stars of red and 
gold floating down with the current, like Liliputian boats 
of fire. It was not, however, an illumination in honour 
of the foreign guests, but a deed of merit performed by a 
wealthy citizen for the benefit of the wandering spirits 
of the drowned. 

Only a few days before we had seen other well-inten- 
tioned philanthropists going from grave to grave in the 
" city of old age," dabbing a few handfuls of lime on the 
top of each grass mound, from which apparently senseless 
act, benefit will be derived, not only by those dead souls 
who have no kith and kin to worship at their tombs, but 
by their benefactors themselves who will thereby store 
up merit in the next world. 

Along the lonely country roads, these doers of good 
deeds have erected here and there signposts without sign- 
boards, but furnished instead with a wooden framework, 
the size of a bird cage, in which those who would earn 
rewards hereafter place a candle for the use of wayfarers. 



136 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The benighted traveller may, if he please, appropriate the 
light to help him on his way. 

The " clear bright " festival, when all respectable Con- 
fucianists worship at their family graves, took place some 
weeks ago, and on that most propitious of days, the farmers 
sowed the summer rice in the tiny seed beds prepared for 
the purpose, beds filled with wet mud so smooth and soft 
and slimy as to look like the glossiest and heaviest of 
brown-hued satin. 

Later on, as the thick crop grew and flourished, the 
seedlings were planted out in straight rows, a bunch at a 
time, in the " water fields." At the " clear bright " 
festival light green cakes, of which one ingredient is grass, 
are eaten with satisfaction by both young and old, for 
doubtless they will bring good luck. 

Once again the gods had manifested their pleasure, and 
the rice crops, of which we should see so many on our 
journey through Kiangsi, bid fair to be even more 
plentiful than the year before. 

From the " City of Eternal Hills " nestling amongst 
the wooded mountains on the borders of Chekiang, we 
started one fresh morning in May on our thirty miles 
road journey into the province of Kiangsi. 

The matter of transport had offered difficulty. Firms 
supplying sedan chairs existed in plenty, but chair- 
bearers at this time of year, when the crops required 
attention, were hard to obtain. The old chairmen, 
moreover, were rapidly dying off in these days of scarce 
and expensive opium. All their lives long they had 
derived fictitious strength from the now forbidden drug, 
and when deprived thereof, with constitutions under- 
mined, soon lost their hold on life. 



THE GEM-HILL CITY 137 

Were there no horses to be obtained ? No. The place 
hardly possessed such a thing. Could we not hire a wheel- 
barrow ? Assuredly not, for the barrowmen were paid by 
weight, and preferred a 700 lb. load to human freight. 

In another year or so we might possibly go by rail, so 
said the optimists. True the railway was not yet built, 
and the nearest line was 500 or 600 miles away, but there 
had been an attempt made, some little time ago, towards 
constructing a thirty-mile railway from the " City of 
Eternal Hills " to the " Gem-Hill City " across the 
border, and had it not been for a quarrel between the 
European engineer and his Chinese colleagues, no doubt 
the matter would have prospered. As things stood, the 
foreigner, stoned and buffeted, had not unnaturally 
thrown up his appointment, and the rails were rusting 
on the river bank. 

At last, after much " talking of price," chair-bearers 
were forthcoming, and bidding farewell to our kind 
hostesses, the two Swiss ladies at the Mission Station who 
had royally entertained us with food for mind and body 
during three days of incessant rain, we were borne away 
up the narrow street of flagstones between the grey- 
walled houses, and into the open country along a paved 
road some six feet wide in the midst of rice fields, so 
lately planted that the tufts of rice blades, sprouting 
above the water, looked like stiff bunches of grass poised 
on gigantic mirrors. 

Now and again we passed a village of low-roofed 
houses with yellow mud walls, snuggling under the grate- 
ful shade of gigantic camphor trees — trees held sacred by 
the country people, as the tiny shrines, against the broad 
trunks, gave evidence. 



138 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Here and there ripe wheat, golden in the sunlight — 
" fields of yellow clouds," as the Chinese say — broke the 
monotony of the rice crops. Women and children, with 
primitive reaping hooks, were hard at work, and sheaves 
of garnered grain hung from the branches of trees to dry, 
or stood in rows round the mud walls of the homestead. 

The road must, we fancied, be of ancient date, for over 
and over again a general upheaval had taken place 
amongst the paving stones, leaving mud holes and deep 
clefts. This mutilated condition of the highway must 
have mattered considerably to the wheel- barrow men who, 
year in and year out, pass in their thousands and scores 
of thousands along that road with their heavy loads. 
Never for one moment during that thirty- mile journey 
were we out of sight of one or many of the great army of 
burden bearers. Carriers of bamboo chairs with matting 
awnings, like those in which we ourselves were riding ; 
coolies with heavily weighted baskets dangling from 
bamboo poles slung across their shoulders, and last, but 
not least, the men with their wheel- barrows. Their loads, 
weighing anything from 300 to 800 lbs. and bulging out on 
either side of the clumsy one-wheeled vehicle, extended 
over the greater part of the roadway, so far dwarfing the 
barrow man that he looked a mere pigmy struggling with 
a giant's burden. Time and time again did we pass one 
in difficulties, straining every muscle to move the wheel 
an inch further on the way across a stony chasm, and 
often upsetting it altogether, to be finally helped back 
to level ground by a colleague in like distress. So far are 
appearances deceptive, especially in China, that the road 
which had seemingly been neglected for scores of years 
is, on the contrary, repaired every twelve months — one 



THE GEM-HILL CITY 139 

half at a time — and the signs of decay are caused by the 
very people who suffer from it most. A continued 
stream of barrows will spoil any road, they say, in an 
incredibly short space of time. 

The " Gem- Hill City," our first halt in the province of 
Kiangsi, lies on the banks of the river of " Broad Sin- 
cerity," in a green valley of rice fields, guarded from afar 
by a tangled chain of mountains of amethyst hues, blue- 
shrouded in the distance. 

The city with its " mash " of brown-roofed houses lies 
like a gigantic and badly written " P " facing the river. 
The yellow waters, swollen by recent rains, race past the 
city walls, and the bridges of brown boats creak and sway. 

The "Hill of Virtue," crowned by temple buildings, 
half-hidden amongst the trees, stands across the water, 
imparting lucky influences, and preserving untouched 
that which would mean wealth and comfort to many a 
poor citizen, in other words, a rich store of precious coal. 
The people, still fettered by the " wind and water " super- 
stition, are unwilling to disturb the soil in search of it for 
fear of disturbing the luck of the city. 

Many years ago, when the first Protestant missionaries 
arrived in the place, they were, so it was rumoured, 
within an ace of purchasing the site for their own build- 
ings. The leading men of the place arose in haste to 
prevent such a catastrophe. The evil influences of out- 
side barbarians would assuredly counteract the harmony 
of the " White Tiger " and the " Blue Dragon." Without 
more delay they subscribed the necessary funds for the 
rebuilding of the temple on the wooded summit, which 
long had lain in ruins, and the gods pleased and pro- 
pitiated, thenceforth reigned supreme. True in the early 



140 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

days of the Republic there had been a reaction, and large 
numbers, like Fuhi in the seventh century, had desired to 
abolish the idols, but those in authority were cautious. 
There should be no destroying in haste to repent at 
leisure. To satisfy the reformers, however, the great idol 
in the City Temple should, for a time, be enclosed in a 
case and locked up. 

Since the old days, when the possible annexation of the 
"Hill of Virtue" by the outside kingdom folk had caused 
such perturbation amongst the big men of the city, 
feelings had considerably changed towards them. The 
" Venerable Great Man Li," one of the wealthiest and 
most influential of residents had, with others of his ilk, 
changed from foe to friend, and still the story is told of 
the night when a rebel army was marching towards the 
gates, and the outside kingdom folk saved the city from 
destruction. 

They at least had shown no fear, and those who listened 
to the preaching of the doctrine that evening, repeated 
the strange words that they had heard : " Except the 
Lord keep the city the watchman watcheth but in vain," 
and the Lord to whom they prayed was One who neither 
" slumbered nor slept." When the morning dawned 
behold the army of the enemy was nowhere to be seen. 
The rebel soldiers had agreed to concentrate their forces 
on the " Hill of Virtue " outside the gates, but the prayer 
of the outside kingdom folk had evidently wrought con- 
fusion in their midst. The main body of the troops had 
mistaken the order and had marched to another " Hill of 
Virtue " some miles further off, whilst their comrades, 
arriving at the gates of the " Gem- Hill City," and sup- 
posing themselves deserted, had turned and fled. 



THE GEM-HILL CITY 141 

In these days the houses of the foreign teachers stands 
for all that is of good report. To pass from the slimy 
pavements between the disgorging shops, the putrid 
smells of burning oil and mouldy bean-curd, of rotting 
fruit, black- speckled with the flies, of offal nosed by the 
pigs, and sniffed at by the mangy dogs — to get away from 
the moving crowd of burden bearers, the insistent shout- 
ing of those who want to pass, the strident tones of 
unrestrained wrath, the crying and the wailing and the 
cursing. To turn from these demon-ridden haunts where 
paths must be crooked, and incense sticks burnt at 
twilight, and fire crackers exploded, and children hung 
with padlocks, and gongs beaten and windows closed, 
except on the lucky side, for fear of devils ; to turn from 
these things into the one little foreign compound, that the 
place possesses, is to pass from the twilight into the sun- 
shine, from dirt to cleanliness, from crooked paths to 
straight ones, from tumult to peace. 

The widowed daughter-in-law of the " Venerable Great 
Man Li " has invited " our jade toes to benignly approach 
her snail- shell of a house " not that the invitation was 
couched in such formal words, which in these days of a 
" People's Kingdom " are considered old-fashioned, and 
possibly a trifle ridiculous. In accordance with old 
custom, however, she sent sedan chairs to bring us to the 
house. It was raining, but the blue and yellow hangings 
of the chairs provided ample shelter, and as for our chair- 
bearers, their bamboo hats, the size of tea trays, were on 
account of their central position, more efficacious than 
umbrellas. 

The "Li Gia" (home of the Li family) grows larger 
year by year, till by now the massive grey stone walls 



142 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

enclosing many courtyards, and the surrounding build- 
ings extend half-way down one street and half-way up 
another. The house is typical of many another wealthy 
home in this part of the country. We were ushered 
through an untidy entrance court, which oblivious gar- 
deners seemed to have Uttered with the contents of the 
potting-shed, and were conducted into that part of the vast 
domain occupied by our hostess. The inner court, roofed 
over save for the sky well in the centre, was one of those 
singularly public places of audience, to which one grows 
accustomed in Chinese houses. The guest hall, occupied 
by the dining table, set in readiness with eight pairs of 
chopsticks, was indeed little more than a gigantic alcove 
with walls on three sides only. In the shadowy back- 
ground, doorways hung with curtains led to more secluded 
apartments. The conversation was, as it were, conducted 
in public. Well-dressed little women, some to whom we 
were introduced, others who bowed politely but to whom 
we were not introduced, girls, children, servants gathered 
round. It was difficult to tell who were relatives, who 
were dependants. Our hostess, however, was of a 
different calibre. She had seen something of the great 
world beyond the gates of the " Gem- Hill City." In her 
dress and in her manners one recognised the influence of 
New China. Instead of the formal salutation, still custo- 
mary in these parts, which ordains that one should draw 
up " broadside on " to the acquaintance whom one 
desires to greet, and then with folded arms bend forward 
with great deliberation, Li Tai Tai greeted us with a simple 
Western bow. 

Being in mourning for her husband she must wear no 
silk for two years, but her simple well-cut "gwadz" of 



THE GEM-HILL CITY 143 

dark blue material showed the dainty undersleeves 
and collar of white lace adopted from the dress of the 
once despised outside kingdom folk. A half-circlet of 
pearls adorned her glossy black hair. She was an 
attractive looking woman with her delicately featured 
oval face and ivory complexion— a face which her own 
countrymen might eulogistically describe as " beautiful 
even as a hen's egg," with " apricot eyes, good to look 
upon," a complexion like " congealed ointment " and 
" willow leaf eyebrows." 

The "book of rites" ordains that "a lady visitor 
should think long before opening her lips "—a most 
convenient rule for a stranger in a strange land with a 
limited vocabulary, though, alas ! the advice suggests 
that the words, when finally uttered should be words of 
weight, an embarrassing thought under the circum- 
stances. By seeking to cover silence with appreciative 
smiles, I bethought me of still another rule of etiquette : 
" Lady visitors must on no account show their teeth when 
they smile." I consoled myself by the reflection that 
our hostess must be too accustomed to barbaric foreign 
ways to take offence. 

It is a happy circumstance that long pauses in con- 
versation never appear to disconcert a Chinese hostess. 
The precept familiar to her from childhood that " if a 
woman's mouth is like a closed door, her words will 
become proverbial, but if like a running tap no heed will 
be paid to what she says," has no doubt been a restraining 
influence. It is evident that Li Tai Tai no longer " sits 
in a well and looks at the sky " (has a limited outlook). 
When deftly drawn into conversation by the sinologue of 
the party she avoids the usual commonplace topics. 



H4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The year of one's birth the number of one's sons, the 
price of one's clothes, the signification of gloves have no 
interest for her. She discusses rather the Presidential 
election, now postponed for the fourth or fifth time, the 
critical state of affairs in the country, the mineral wealth 
of China, and the ignorance and superstition of the people 
who refuse to let a coal shaft be sunk in the " Hill of 
Virtue " outside the city gates. 

A buxom and lively cousin, preferring matters of more 
domestic interest, confided to us that she had seen 
outside kingdom folk in Shanghai with rings in their 
noses. " Was this painful ? " she asked. 

Li Tai Tai is said to be a leading spirit in that vast 
household. The " Li Gia " profits much by the natural 
ability and dignity of character of this quiet little widow 
with the passive dark eyes under the slightly raised 
eyebrows, eyes which see so much, yet apparently look 
out so calmly and indifferently on all things. 

It is well that modern requirements no longer exact a 
blind submission to Confucian etiquette. The great 
master ordained that " no woman can be permitted to 
direct affairs or presume to follow her own judgment." 

Li Tai Tai's only child is a girl. By legal right, how- 
ever, the children of her husband's second wife are hers to 
all intents and purposes. The second wife was intro- 
duced to us but seemed disinclined to talk. Indeed her 
one and only contribution to the conversation at the 
table was an occasional eructation of painful intensity 
which, with true politeness (according to the old regime), 
should have been echoed by the guests. 

As newly-arrived visitors we were, alas, obliged to 
accept the seats of honour, and to announce that we had 



THE GEM-HILL CITY 145 

unwillingly appropriated them. The position is fraught 
with difficulty to Western barbarians, unused to the 
intricacies of Chinese etiquette. True ! our deficiencies 
would be more easily pardoned in these days of change — 
when the over-elaborate manners of former times show 
dangerous signs of degenerating into no manners at all. 
There was small risk of this, however, in the " Li Gia," 
as long as Li Tai Tai held the reins of government. 

The round table set for eight — the orthodox number — 
showed a quaint touch of foreign influence in the white 
tablecloth. It was only made of calico, but a cloth of any 
kind was a concession to foreign taste and not the only 
one. Usually a pair of chopsticks, a porcelain spoon, and 
possibly a miniature saucer, the size of a doll's plate, are 
all the implements provided for one's personal use during 
a dinner of many courses, with the result that as the meal 
progresses, a mangled heap of discarded sharks' fins, 
rejected sea slugs, lumps of sugared pork, and shavings 
of pig's stomachs, of bones and grizzle and green eggs 
repose before one in unappetising array — absorbing both 
spoon and saucer, and overflowing on to floor or table. 
Much to our silent approval our hostess at the end of each 
course — possibly out of respect for the white calico table- 
cloth — quickly handed our microscopic saucers to a 
serving-woman to be washed and returned. 

In the long space of time which elapsed before dinner 
was served, we sat in an inner sanctum furnished in the 
so-called foreign style, with wicker chairs and harmonium, 
cheap photos and picture advertisements and the 
inevitable looking-glasses, which varied from a full-length 
mirror to a shaving glass. The empty tables, the cur- 
tainless windows looking out on a wall, the lack of rugs, 



146 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

of cushions, and of books, deprived the room, of any look 
of comfort. Some attempt had evidently been made to 
achieve the appearance of disorder, which in Oriental eyes 
a genuine foreign room always displays. 

" How shall I arrange the furniture ? " a new servant 
in a foreigner's house was overheard to ask. " Oh, that 
is of no importance," came the answer, " those outside 
kingdom folk like their things all in a muddle." 

Conversation plays a very unimportant part at a 
Chinese feast. Too much talk on the side of the guests 
might be taken to imply dissatisfaction with the menu. 
Out of compliment to their hostess, their chief interest 
should be centred in the good things provided. The 
hostess meanwhile will probably observe the Con- 
fucian maxim, not to talk whilst eating except when 
addressed, and will busy herself in attending to her 
visitors' wants. 

There are, however, sundry polite phrases on the part 
of the chief guests which should be uttered at various 
stages during the meal. The sumptuous fare being some- 
what repellent to our Western taste was at times singu- 
larly difficult of disposal. In our eagerness to feign 
appreciation, we often omitted, alas, to place our chop- 
sticks on the table as a signal that the rest of the party 
might do the same. According to rules, the other guests 
are not guests at all, but only " companions " to number 
one and two, and are, therefore, supposed to follow the 
lead of their so-called superiors. 

When wet towels, hot and fragrantly scented, were 
brought round, the guests of honour, before proceeding 
with their ablutions, should admonish their fellow-diners 
to " slowly eat," whereupon they will courteously reply 



THE GEM-HILL CITY 147 

" slowly sit." There was no doubt as to the " sitting 
slowly." The sedan chairs had brought us at 12 o'clock, 
it was past five before we made our farewells. 

" Do sie, do sie " (many thanks). " We have wasted 
your heart," we say. 

" ' Keh chi ' (you are too polite), I have treated 
you rudely ? " replied our hostess, at which we again 
expressed our gratitude and departed, two or three paces 
at a time with intervals of bows. 

Though to casual observers life seemed to be going on 
as usual in the " Gem- Hill City," and the streets appeared 
as noisy and as crowded as though a flourishing country 
fair were in progress, our friend of the willow-leaf eye- 
brows informed us that all was " ding buh ping-an " (truly 
not at peace), and she and her children, accompanied 
by other members of that large household, and bearing 
with them their pearls and their valuables, were contem- 
plating flight. In a few days' time they would be starting 
on their way to the coast, and had already taken a house 
within the safe precincts of the foreign settlement in 
Shanghai, where they would wait till the trouble was 
over. " What trouble ? " we asked, and she explained 
to us that most of the soldiers from the city and from 
many other towns in the province had been ordered to 
the provincial capital by the military governor, and would 
take up arms, if need arose, against the troops from the 
north, who were, though no one knew why, collecting in 
large numbers on the shores of the " Great River " 
(Yangste). With no one left to keep order, the robber 
bands, the hawks and the dogs (ruffians), infesting the 
countryside would soon fall upon the city demanding toll 
of the wealthy citizens. The " Venerable Great One " 



148 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

would stay, but the ladies of the household, with their 
jewels, would be better away. 

The day before our dinner at the "Li Gia " we had visited 
a Mandarin some hundreds of years old. The " Living 
Idol," the people called him, as they led us through the 
temple building, hidden amongst the trees at the foot of 
the " Hill of Virtue," into the inner sanctum. He had 
been famed during his life for his good works, and when, 
therefore, the day came for him to " descend to the sun- 
light of the nine springs " (Hades), it was agreed by com- 
mon consent that his saintly body should be preserved in 
the most sacred precincts of the temple for all men to see 
and worship. Seated in a shrine somewhat raised from 
the ground, the withered form in faded robes sits as it 
were in contemplation like a follower of Buddha. By 
what chemical process the preservation of the body has 
been achieved, no one knows. Though the face is much 
shrivelled and the colour of the flesh resembles the colour 
of mud, there is something strangely human and almost 
beautiful in the expression of the features, so much so, 
that one's first scepticism as to the genuineness of the 
" living idol ,; began to waver. 



CHAPTER XII 

The Serpent Month 

Thirty-six miles lay before us through the valley of 
rice fields, and across the low-lying hills to the river at 
" Yang Keo." In China a mile is not always a mile. 
Much depends on whether the road goes up hill or down, 
and in the province that we have just left behind a road 
exists which is a full eight miles in extent. Every one will 
tell you, however, that the distance is only six miles, and 
it is officially recognised as such. An autocratic mandarin 
of past days made the alteration to " gain his private 
ends." He had announced, namely, in public, that his 
daughter should not marry a man who lived more than 
six miles from her home. It so happened that a very 
desirable suitor appeared soon after, who resided, alas, at 
a place eight miles off. The mandarin, nothing abashed, 
soon settled the matter by changing eight into six in the 
official records, and the alteration has remained in force 
ever since. 

The thirty-six miles, whether rightly reckoned or not, 
took more than eleven hours to accomplish, for soldiers 
were roaming the countryside in search of opium, and 
small shopkeepers who were wont to sell the smuggled 
drug to trustworthy customers, prudently professed to 
have run out of stock. The chair-bearers, deprived of 
their usual stimulant, had hard work to get along, and 
at last one poor wreck of humanity fell ill on the roadside. 



i5o CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

There was nothing to be done but to get out of the chair 
and walk. Darkness was closing in as we stumbled along 
a narrow pathway, to the left of us a swamp of a rice 
field, and to the right a rushing river, gushing and foam- 
ing in the dark shadows below the fringe of bushes. The 
chair-bearers had forgotten the lanterns, had forgotten 
them on purpose, as we afterwards divined, so as not to 
drawdown upon us undue attention from highway robbers. 
There were many gangs of them at work, and only three 
days before, they had attacked the sellers of rice in the 
market town, through which we had just passed. The 
soldiers, applied to for protection, had fired on the crowd, 
missing the robbers and killing some of the country 
people. 

Nothing could seem more peaceful than the grassy 
sward under the spreading trees by the riverside at Yang 
Keo. It was as though we were walking over the springy 
turf of some garden lawn and, behind the trees, Dai Giao Si 
in the little mission house was waiting to welcome us. 
Not long, however, had we been safely inside the stone 
walls when the hubbub of excited voices broke the still- 
ness of the night. A great mob had arisen, as it were, out 
of the ground and voices were clamouring either in fear 
or in anger. Shots rang out clear and sharp above the 
roar. From the upper windows we could see the green 
sward alive with hurrying people, carrying flaming 
torches and sweeping onwards. They had passed us by — 
so much was certain — and were moving along the river 
bank. We watched the lights dwindling and disappear- 
ing one by one. 

" It was indeed well," said a police sergeant the next 
morning, " that the ' keh-ren ' (guests) had got inside the 



THE SERPENT MONTH 151 

gates just in time." A gang of robbers, it seemed, had 
been the cause of the disturbance. They had made away 
with a neat little haul of several hundred ounces of silver 
stored in a boat near by, which was to have started that 
night down river. In spite of their pursuers, they had 
escaped unhurt. No one had been injured, except a 
soldier who had shot himself through the hand by mis- 
take ! The countryside was being terrorised by these 
bands of outlaws. Rice was scarce, and, indeed, there 
was hardly any to be bought except that sold by the 
Government authorities in limited quantities. Farmers 
in lonely country districts had still a certain quantity in 
store, but were afraid to bring it to market, knowing that 
it was more than likely to be commandeered on the way. 

As to the police, we saw no more of them. Though 
their sentry-boxes remained at the corners of the streets, 
they themselves, having incurred the wrath of the resi- 
dents, had sought sanctuary in a neighbouring temple. 

This is the " Serpent Month," the fifth moon, according 
to old time reckoning, and on the fifth of the fifth moon 
China, young and old, turns out in force to look for the 
body of Ch'u Yuan, the patriot — in other words to enjoy 
the amusement of the dragon- boat race, and to fling 
offerings of rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, and cakes and 
sweetmeats into the water. 

It is more than 2,000 years now since Ch'u Yuan, sick at 
heart over the ingratitude of his royal master, drowned 
himself in the Lo river. He left behind him an imaginary 
dialogue between himself and a fisherman. " Good people 
are scarce," he said as he stood by the water's edge, 
" the world is foul and I alone am clean. They are all 
drunk, and I alone am sober, and so I am dismissed." 



152 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" Ah ! " said the fisherman, " the true sage does not 
quarrel with his environment, but adapts himself to it. 
If, as you say, the world is foul, why not leap into the tide 
and make it clean." 

But Ch'u Yuan had chosen otherwise, and so, on the 
fifth of the fifth moon, since the year 450 B.C., the dragon- 
boats have been rowed up and down the river in search 
of his body, and the people have gathered on the banks to 
enjoy the fun of a holiday. 

The fifth of the fifth moon has other associations be- 
sides those connected with the dead patriot. On this 
day, and not before, spring clothes may be exchanged 
for summer clothes, and the rule is strictly observed in 
many parts of the country. There are still more impor- 
tant matters to attend to on this particular date for is this 
not the " poison month " — the " Serpent Month " — and 
at the hour of noon on the fifth day, all reptiles will creep 
below the ground in a state of paralysed terror, and those, 
who are prudent, will smear a little yellow powder (con- 
sisting chiefly of brimstone) on their heads and faces 
in order to secure immunity from all poisonous bites 
throughout the summer. 

Nor is that all, every careful housewife will sprinkle a 
goodly supply of lime on the doorstep, and in every corner 
of every room, by way of a precautionary measure. Was it 
not said that even the old Dowager Empress, she who 
now occupied the Dragon Throne on high, had always 
made a practice on the fifth of the fifth moon, at the fatal 
hour of noon, of dabbing this same yellow powder under 
her ears and nostrils. 

The " rush sword " was even more important than the 
yellow powder. As we glanced through the open doors of 



THE SERPENT MONTH 153 

the houses by the riverside, we could see for ourselves 
that no one had omitted to hang up this strange green 
emblem. Here and there we stayed awhile, accepting 
the ever ready invitation to " please sit," and endeavoured 
to find out from the good woman of the house the hidden 
meaning of this unusual form of decoration. Dai 
Giao Si's dark eyes and ever ready smile won us much 
information, which otherwise would not have fallen 
readily to the strangers with the " devil's eyes " in the 
queer " devil's clothes." 

Dai Giao Si's month was full of spring breezes, as they 
said, and she smiled like a bursting pomegranate. Her 
dark colouring won admiration denied to many of her 
countrywomen. 

" Yes, I live in Yang Keo," she replied to one who was 
inquiring where her " honourable home might be." 

" Can this be true ? Why, I quite thought that you 
were a foreign devil." 

" If you mean that I am one of the outside kingdom 
people, you are right," she answered, " but is it not 
written in your books Li do ren buh gwai ? ' " (nobody 
blames you for being too polite !). Whereupon there 
followed profuse apologies, for it was clear that this 
stranger from the West knew manners and customs and 
had " studied books " even as one of themselves ; there- 
fore, she must be treated with respect. 

They were not luxurious, the houses in the market town 
of " Yang Keo," and many of them bore a strong likeness 
the one to the other, from the floors of uneven mud to the 
walls of even mud, which once in some remote past had 
been whitewashed. Narrow forms, a heavy-limbed chair 
or so, a table or two, and sundry oddments more appro- 



154 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

priate to a lumber room than a sitting room represented 
the furniture. In the centre of the wall, facing the door, 
above an altar-like table, supplied with incense burners, 
hung almost invariably a full-length portrait of the 
heavenly mandarin. 

" What were the rush swords made of ? " we asked. 
Sweet flags chiefly and mugwort and garlic. " If you do 
not hang up mugwort on the fifth of the fifth moon you 
will not eat any new wheat this year," so goes the saying, 
but our friends in fear, possibly, of " eating a laugh," 
would not admit any superstition of this kind. True, it 
was thought that mugwort brought good luck. Besides 
which, it was a useful thing to have in the house, and 
made an excellent tea for the curing of indigestion. 

" Chang-pu" (sweet flags) could be also turned to good 
account in the form of a lotion used for abscesses or sores. 
As to garlic, its virtues are many. One might almost 
write it up like a Western advertisement as efficacious 
in cases of sunstroke — invaluable in the laundry and 
finally excellent as a demon-preventative — a quality not 
to be despised in a demon-haunted land. Evil spirits are 
said to loathe the smell of garlic, and their taste in this 
matter, the inhabitants of certain islands of the sea 
would heartily endorse. 

There were " floating words " that the dragon-boat 
race would not take place after all, though such a viola- 
tion of approved custom had never been heard of before 
in the little town of Yang Keo, even during the first year 
of the new Republic, when all that savoured of idolatry 
had suffered a momentary rebuff. Those who marched 
with the times in the big cities of the coast were still 
inclined to look askance on those foolish festivities of 



THE SERPENT MONTH 155 

olden days, as being altogether out of place in an en- 
lightened " People's Kingdom," but the influence of 
these advanced members of society was too slight a thing 
to penetrate far inland, and even in its own preserves was 
not always effective. Yang Keo had continued happily 
in the time-worn-ruts up till now. " It may be just 
shadow and echo talk ! " said one. " Certain it is, how- 
ever, that just now these ' tu fei ' (brigands) are about the 
country, people fear to go out of the door." 

" The rice, too, is scarce, and it is still three weeks 
before the harvest, and already," said one, " my house 
is like an empty jar hung up." 

No, it seemed certain for one reason and another there 
would be no hunt that year for the body of Ch'u Yuan. 
One of the dragon-boats, long, painted, and narrow, lay 
at peace in its shed on the river bank, where it had lain 
for the last twelve months, and the water buffaloes grazed 
at ease on the grassy sward beneath the trees, unconscious 
of their good luck in being left undisturbed. But before 
long the silence was broken and an eager crowd of 
excited spectators gathered along the water's edge, yet 
there was hardly a boat to be seen, the broad expanse 
of water was practically empty, but the people were 
flocking across the narrow bridge and coming slowly 
towards us. 

Behind them, on the opposite shore, dense clouds of 
smoke rose like a wall, blotting out trees and houses. 
Soldiers, slouching undrilled soldiers in bulging khaki 
uniforms, formed the nucleus of the crowd. They 
tramped past, looking good humoured enough, and 
those who tramped beside them showed nought but 
approval. 



156 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

These military heroes, had, it seemed, just set fire to 
the entire village across the river. They were on their 
way from the city five miles distant to the provincial 
capital, and had received orders to execute this " deed of 
justice " on their journey through. True, many of the 
inhabitants of the village were innocent of crime, but 
amongst them dwelt families connected with the band 
of " tu fei," who had been making so much havoc 
throughout the countryside. There was nothing to be 
done but to " burn a mulberry tree in order to fry a 
tortoise " (make the innocent suffer for the guilty). A 
weird mediaeval form of punishment for a republican 
government ! But in China where " nothing is but think- 
ing makes it so " far less drastic in reality than in appear- 
ance, for as the soldiers sailed down river in their com- 
mandeered boats, the smoke died down with curious 
rapidity, and behold the village, though somewhat 
charred and injured, was still in existence ! 

In spite of the unrest in the neighbourhood, the dis- 
appearance of the police, and the scarcity of food, the 
daily round and common task in the little town of Yang 
Keo, seemed to go on much as usual. 

One of the great industries of the place is the manu- 
facture of " bitter cakes." All day long one might meet 
coolies with a goodly burden of this unattractive mer- 
chandise, slung at either end of his bamboo pole, bearing 
it forth for export. In the crowded precincts of the town 
where the open-fronted, open-mouthed shops seem to be 
yawning in each other's faces across the narrow strip of 
black and greasy cobble-stones, called by courtesy the 
pavement, the bitter cake stores are some of the most 
prosperous. They are round, plump and solid, these 



THE SERPENT MONTH 157 

cakes, the size of big scones, and are made, not of flour, 
but of manure. 

Yang Keo also possesses a duckery, where just now 
40,000 ducks' eggs are being hatched by artificial heat. 
The methods are even more primitive than in the chicken 
establishment at Shangteo. 

To begin with, the eggs are kept in tubs filled with hot 
wheat, and the wheat itself is heated twice a day in 
cauldrons over a charcoal fire. Later on, they are spread 
out on wide shelves in the same shed-like building in which 
the tubs of hot wheat are kept, and in twenty-eight days, 
with no further attention whatever, the eggs are hatched. 
A small hungry-looking cat had been impressed into the 
service, and tied to a basket occupied by a newly-arrived 
party of downy ducklings, in order — they told us — to 
guard them from possible inroads of rats, and the cat 
apparently could be thoroughly relied on not to betray 
her trust ! 

On our return to the riverside, we stumbled unex- 
pectedly upon a religious service. An elegant youth was 
busy firing off crackers, lighting candles, and pouring 
forth libations of wine on the gnarled roots of one of the 
old camphor trees near our gates. He had lost some- 
thing, so much was clear, and was worried and distressed, 
but not averse from confiding in the " teacher sister " 
who spoke his own words even as one of themselves. 
Bit by bit the whole story leaked out. It was a soul that 
had strayed away, one of the three souls belonging to his 
brother, who, deprived of its presence, was now lying on 
a bed of sickness and would most assuredly pass away, 
unless the missing soul could^be induced to return to its 
former habitation. 



158 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

It was known that the last place in which the brother 
had been seen to linger before his final collapse, was here 
by these very trees. In any case, the sorrowing family 
had arranged to offer sacrifices at all the likely spots, 
with a polite request to the spirit to come back to its old 
home. 

To cut a long story short, the elegant youth returned 
to his invalid, bearing with him not, indeed, the missing 
soul, but a generous supply of castor oil, which, as it 
happened, came to the same thing in the long run ! 

In some parts of China, by the way, though castor oil 
is frequently used for culinary purposes, no one realises 
its medicinal properties, the fact being that castor oil 
when taken hot may be enjoyed with impunity ! 



CHAPTER XIII 
On the "River of Broad Sincerity" 

It is often said that Japan owes most of her civilisation 
to China. From China came the written language, the 
classics, the artists, the kimonos and the umbrellas, but 
in one matter, that of her love of hot baths and personal 
cleanliness, I used to think, until I strayed into this 
province of Kiangsi, that the " East Sea Kingdom " had 
learnt nothing from the Sons of Han. 

But here there is one district in which the common 
daily greeting is no longer " Have you had your rice ? " 
but " Have you had your bath ? " 

True, there are writers who aver, in spite of much 
evidence to the contrary, that the Chinese have a high 
regard for cleanliness. Possibly this was true in the 
golden age of long ago, for history relates that in the 
Tang dynasty, more than a thousand years back, the 
salary of certain court officials went by the name of 
" bathing money " and was paid to them every ten days. 
There is also a record of a king (1766 b.c.) who has this 
suggestive motto inscribed on his bath-tub : " If you 
can renovate yourself one day, do so every day and for 
ever." 

It seems typical, however, of things Chinese that one 
time black was considered emblematic of purity because, 
forsooth, it did not show the dirt. 

In many of these Kiangsi towns, however, it is not 



160 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

merely a matter of a motto on a bath-tub, but of hot 
water and plenty of it in daily requisition. 

The dwellers on the banks of the " River of Broad 
Sincerity " have much to be thankful for. 

They need not wash their babies with mud for want of a 
more suitable medium, as some of their countrymen in 
the north are said to do. Neither are they reduced to 
drinking hot water and calling it tea. Rice, fruit, vege- 
tables, grow luxuriantly at their doors, and three meals a 
day is a common allowance, whereas in some of the less 
favoured provinces the poor man considers himself lucky 
if he gets two. Coal, which in Shensi costs is. 6d. a cwt., 
can be purchased here for 6d. or yd., and could, of course, 
be cheaper still if scientifically mined. As things are, 
it is scratched out of holes in the hillsides, and when the 
hole fills with water, the miner yields his claim without a 
protest and seeks another. Moreover, for the little clay 
" wind stoves " of the natives, coal dust is more in 
demand than coal lumps, as the former, mixed with 
earth, is found to supply all the heat required at an almost 
nominal cost. 

On one of our walks abroad at Yang Keo, we came 
across a gigantic rubbish heap. The rubbish consisted 
chiefly of knobs of coal discharged from the baskets 
of coal dust which were being carried to market. 

Thirty miles or so from Yang Keo, lies the large and 
important " City of Broad Sincerity," on the banks of its 
namesake river. The trade in " bitter cakes " is now no 
more, and the people busy themselves with the tea trade 
and with the manufacture of paper. 

Much of the tea most highly prized by the Chinese 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 161 

comes from this Kiangsi province, possibly the " Dragon 
well tea," and " Lao Tzu's eyebrows tea," and other 
blends, the poetical names of which I have forgotten, and 
few outside kingdom folk can appreciate to a nicety the 
differences of flavour which to a Chinese mean so much. 

The old Dowager Empress always kept a supply of 
honeysuckle blossoms and rose petals with which to 
season the national beverage. 

" Tea makes the mind more lucid," goes the saying, 
and pillows stuffed with tea leaves are good for the eyes. 

The " City of Broad Sincerity " prides itself on being a 
literary city of renown. The college, the finest in the 
province, lies amongst its wooded gardens, looking down 
from a superior height on to the brown-roofed houses 
with spreading eaves which, crowding along the river 
banks, seem to be pressing forward in order to get as near 
to the water's edge as possible. The suburb outside the 
city walls is as large and important as the city itself. A 
bit of a moat remains, thickly covered with lotus leaves, 
fishes' umbrellas, as the people sometimes call them. 
The " arrow root " made from the lotus is the best in the 
land, so excellent is it indeed, that, as long as the " Son 
of Heaven " occupied the Dragon Throne, a certain 
quantity of it had to be sent to the palace, year after 
year, for his consumption. 

The only mission house in this big city was, until a 
short time ago, one of the brown-roofed, low-walled 
buildings standing in a crowded street jambed against 
the city wall. But the old residence, with its darkness 
and malarial germs, has been given up now for a new 



1 62 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

foreign house, bright, light and spacious with deep 
balconies and a non-malarial upper storey. Money goes 
a long way still in China, and comfortable family resi- 
dences, with wide verandahs, glass windows and polished 
floors, can be built for something under .£400. 

Our hospitable friends, who lived within its walls, still 
kept to the Chinese dress, so necessary from all points of 
view in the early days of pioneer work. Many amongst 
their people had never seen foreign clothes as worn by 
outside kingdom women. They surveyed us with 
interest, but not with admiration. With true Chinese 
courtesy, however, they kept their disapproval to them- 
selves till afterwards, and one or two even essayed a 
compliment. 

" The foreign dress (made of muslin by the way) must 
be ' ding hao ' (very nice) in the winter time," they sug- 
gested, " for did not the belt round the waist keep one 
warm ? " They could understand the same reason for 
the wearing of gloves, but that any person in their senses 
should wish for gloves in the summer wholly surpassed 

their comprehension. 

Curiously unattractive many of us must seem to them. 
Our bold ungainly walk is of all things repulsive to a 

people brought up to consider a mincing gait as a mark 

of breeding and respectability ! 

Their criticism of one pretty golden-haired English 

girl showed the difference of taste. She is not bad, they 

allowed, but her blue eyes are enough to give one a fright, 

and her yellow hair reminds one of the straw mats we 

kneel on in the church ! 

" No one is a saint in the dog days," goes the Chinese 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 163 

saying. An unusually hot spell has come upon us pre- 
maturely, and even the chairs and tables, the books and 
papers, are hot, damp and sticky, and the mosquito, 
" playing on his silken strings " in picturesque Chinese 
phraseology, hovers around us by day and by night 
digging in a dart whenever opportunity offers. Experts 
can tell Mrs. Anopheles with her malarial bacilli from the 
others, but to the ordinary mortal all are equally un- 
pleasant, and one marvels at the philosophy of the 
Chinese poet who pleaded for mercy on their behalf : — 

" Oh, spare the busy morning fly, 
Spare the mosquito of the night, 
And if their wicked trade they ply 
Let a partition stop their flight. 

" Their span is brief from birth to death, 
Like you, they bite their little day, 
And then with Autumn's earliest breath 
Like you they too are swept away." 

Fortunately the boats on the " River of Broad 
Sincerity " are of a far more comfortable type than those 
on the Tsien Tang. No longer is it a case of sleeping in a 
species of small tunnel, the common property of passen- 
gers and crew. We have now a kind of upper deck 
all to ourselves, raised some two feet above the bottom 
of the boat and, thanks to curtains, it is invisible to the 
boatmen. Here the mats, forming the roof and walls, 
can be pushed back and larger air spaces opened out. 
The steersman at the stern stands on a sufficiently high 
level to look over, instead of being obliged to look through, 
as in the Tsien Tang river boats. As our craft slips 
rapidly down the swollen current to the next halting-place, 
the landscape changes in character. The rice fields are 



164 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

scarcer and terra cotta hills, like inverted sugar basins 
of monster size, form the leading features. This red 
" Devonshire " earth, which is much used in the world- 
famed potteries near the Po Yang lake, is now to be a 
familiar sight. Round about the " City of River Mouth " 
there is a lonely bit of breezy moorland, called Scotland 
in jest, and some scraps of green bog amongst rocky hills, 
dark and gloomy, nicknamed Ireland, which make one 
forget for the moment that one is in China, till, descend- 
ing once more to the level rice fields on the land side of the 
city, one catches sight of the red ochre walls of a temple, 
and the oil-cake seller in his cotton cloth garments of corn- 
flower blue drowsing on the temple steps. The beating 
of gongs and the loud wailing of mourners' voices in the 
background remind one of the haunting horrors of the 
crowded streets so near at hand, where death counts for 
more than life, and where one old woman, who mattered 
little to anybody while she was living, appears now to have 
been well enough off to leave a substantial sum of money 
to the Taoist priests, so that all things may be done 
decently and in order to facilitate her journey into the 
land of shades. She has been dead now for three weeks, 
and on and off the priests have beaten their gongs and 
chanted their prayers, and have kept the candles burning, 
in order to light the soul upon its way, for in the region 
to be traversed all is darkness. 

How long the " golden peck " (coffin with a corpse in 
it) will be kept above ground only the priests and the 
geomancerscan tell — they who must " seek the dragon and 
mark his lair " (find a lucky spot for the grave). " The 
happy man," say they, " finds a happy burial place." 
The wealthy man would be nearer the truth 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 165 

Occasionally people find it convenient to forget the 
presence of the dead in their homes. Only the other day 
an old man who " saluted the age " (died) thirty years 
ago, was borne forth at last to his grave on the hillside. 

Coffins and funerals are expensive items, and some- 
times, but rarely, these things can be dispensed with. 
Not very long ago, in this same province of Kiangsi, a 
family took counsel together as to the most expedient way 
of checking the dissolute career of the younger brother 
who, by his evil deeds, was bringing disgrace and ruin on 
the household. No blood should be shed. They desired 
no vulgar brawl, but justice should be meted out quietly 
and swiftly, and before long the offending youth had been 
buried — buried alive under the kitchen floor ! 

The cruelty practised, every now and again, between 
those who are nearest akin, is almost incredible to a 
Western mind. In the " City of the River Orchid " we 
used sometimes to pass a young man groping his way 
along the high-walled lane at the back of the house. In 
his early days he had been addicted to thieving. The 
father, in despair of effecting a reform by any other means, 
chose the only certain remedy he could think of, and 
throwing lime in his boy's eyes, blinded him for life. 

It was a relief to get beyond earshot of the priests' 
gongs and the chanting, into the quiet garden behind the 
mission house — a garden of luxurious growth, of American 
apples and Chinese peaches, of loquat trees with their 
bunches of golden fruit, of grapes, green and purple, 
ripening in the sunshine (unlucky from a Chinese point 
of view because their branches point downwards), of 
bushes of tiny^lemons, of broad-leafed fig trees, and hairy- 



M CHANCE wp CHANGE in CHINA 

stemmed palms, from the Rbre oi whi< h the ( ommon folk 

make [': turesque waterproofs Even 1 thing seemed 

to thrive, and one could not but deplore the t.u t that so 
little is done by the sons oi the soil in the way oi hint 

cultivation. 

Sweet smelling green orchids ami the white gardenia 
blossoms gave a sleep) exotic fragrance to this Chinese 
garden. 

At the* •• River Mouth Cit\ ,*' toi the small sum oi el< \ en 
dollars ^:.\0 .1 boat, large .uul agreeabb new and l lean, 
was hired to take as to the capital) .» foi might's joui ney . 

allowing for many h.ilts on the \va\ (some :?o utiles of 
actual travelling^. But though it iu.iv not cost .1 great 

deal ol monej to live in comparative comfort on the 

shores oi the " Rivet oi Broad Sincerit\ " those who, foi 
t ho sake oi that which means more to them than life, 
have made the place then home, often pa) .1 heavy toll 
in the matter oi health and strength* 

Foi tWO days, damp, hot, enervating, lifeless days, we 
Stayed in the citj oi Ivang, one stage from out last halt 
at M Iv.wM Mouth." 

The- house ol our hospitable rntert.iiuers, wedged it* 
between the crowded street and .1 high bank .it the foot 
oi .t steep hill, seemed to be gasping for ait . I \ ei \ thing 
was open that could be open, but the tiny courts down 
below bleaching in the sunlight, and the tiny rooms 
upstairs, squeezed in under the low roof, were almost hoi 

enough to be on fire, 

The little guest hall, stowed away at the back and out 
oi reach of the sunshine, was perhaps the coolest spot in 
the house, broni it the open dooi led ow to a damp ditch, 



ON TMh "IT/hf OJ' JiKOAlJ SJNU'J'.ITY" toy 

between llj' :.'-..' ;:.-: lb< bank, in //:..':. t|,< :;.../ arc] 
';.'• 1/ ltt< ; and tic ;. cJdin^ //< p ; ■ ,.'/..;.:' ,:. :> ::..;. j ' <• 
'/.' kc of '// ■ ' , .. Ol :■' I tl<>\ • ., ■ .. '.',.'',.,.' '.;/, 

and . •/ ':.- .-.!,]'■ ;s : »o the housekeeper in summer 

watlc i 'I ..■ 

I)' at j,re§cntf many i, tome enterprising soul* 

wear j^ingoi twin d milk and d b itter, - ; I a vc attempted 

to k<*ej, a '.or/, ... '... 

at bone-. Ait'-; : : on", of . 

tic- 'fat ir< . . oft'n . :.y A;n\y a.v ; .- to h< 

a.-.-: o:.« : : . = :.■.•,.. ...•■.:/)'•/, in thil part of the country 
rel . ■; to /j'-J'i n , . of rndk until the kitchen 

tongi hud been forced into hei month, at. which 

: of \'.\< k . . .\> an'J O':.' I //. ,' -. ol ' .:.;; 

the ),:■. ■,.-■. . ...' J, .:.' ' ..• r/< d .. //ay at, 

tic lO/J^'; ail'] a]| //■:.' '//ell Ore .•//',//;.': |//ho had 

r ::.•,/•■: lie '.all /,:..<//;..; ' |,rem at .."-.]/, 7/a'-, obi.:y ' : f.0 

have an artife ial on- rn to i d<e it;-, jd;>" , a/i'J .' d 

for tli'- j/u/j//.' :i ;y ;,'iiii': '.aif -Jon stuffed with ....// 

1 1- ■/-//,' of the )ar^': '.iti< . //hep fof ■■/■■• : . • ',:.:/:< :/ ate, 

the Cli in *■;•*. 'it art dairie'; on their own account, and haw: 
many in;/' nio -■. methods of in' p-.vdn^ noi tic: numb' r of 
r.o •//!■. hijf tic 'iUj/jJy of milk. H'-an curd, for in'itanc , .. 
a uvfij] . ..t which ado . I ' :...' . . 

( ){ t t- ■//<■;, \] \,y and ':X' • Il \.\.' i '\ / \>'.i . .' llai '.'..', \ 

tO run no I,./., .'';.',)'•'] thai tic coy/ itfelf ihould be 
t to lc r lio i .' : milked on t] ,-. hay after 
/ the animal a^jy-ared ''" 'lc .' ' •.'•> arc] tic: bottle;-, of 
milk enjoy:'] Ly tic: family //■ i ■ pro -. ■ ■ ■'; excellent. 

Om ij:c- day tb<: cow arrived a'-, i'-,ual, but the man 

/vl ■ • / ." //■ rint'-nd tic- nub- ;; // 

" Wby doe;-, not r-.ome ore: eJr-.e rnilk tic: creal ire t " 



rcou; 

da 



1 68 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

inquired my lady, but no one offered. The bottles of 
milk, however, were there as usual, and then at last the true 
story leaked out that the cow which appeared every day 
in the foreigners' domain was but a figure head, and had no 
direct connection with the milk consumed in the household. 

Another customer sought, on one occasion, to verify 
his suspicions. " Lao ban," he said, " you have been 
putting dirty water in this milk ! " 

" Indeed, that is not so, the water was well water and 
absolutely fresh," came the naive answer. 

Side by side with the humble mission premises in the 
city of Iyang stands the " cathedral," as it has been called, 
so large and stately is the edifice in comparison to all other 
buildings round about. A point of especial interest is 
that practically all the funds for the erection of this 
fine church were supplied by the Chinese Christians. 

Those who in these restless days oppose woman's 
rights, and suggest, much as Confucius suggested, that 
" woman is subject to man and may not presume to follow 
her own judgment " should pay a visit to the work that 
has been organised entirely by Western women on the 
shores of the " River of Broad Sincerity." 

" A woman's power," as Ruskin puts it, " is for rule, 
her intellect is for sweet ordering, arrangement and 
decision," and here they have ruled supreme for some 
twenty years or more, teaching all who were willing to 
learn, the secret of life and inculcating a new lesson that : 

" In blessing we are blest. 
In labour find our rest." 

Up and down the river in every place of importance the 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 169 

" Hall of Good Tidings " is open to all who come. There 
are schools for the children, houses for the despised old 
women, and dispensaries, where wonderful foreign medi- 
cines are to be got for a few copper cash, or, if needs be, 
for nothing at all. 

Even the proud Confucianists, who " walk by on the 
other side," reluctantly admit that those who have truly 
" eaten of the foreigners' doctrine " practise virtue, in 
holding faithfulness and sincerity as first principles, even 
as the " Great Master " himself has avowed. 

It was a pity, thought some, that a " Good Tidings Hall" 
could not be started amongst the west country people 
whose wild doings were the talk of the countryside. These 
unruly neighbours belong to a fierce tribe living but thirty 
miles off to the west. Some of them come now and then 
to the town and can be recognised by their fine physique, 
and by the fact that their women, taller and bigger in every 
way than the usual Chinese women, always wear skirts. 
A year ago a fight had broken out amongst the different 
factions of the tribe, and sixty or more had been killed. 
As a judgment for their iniquities, so said their peaceful 
neighbours, wild animals had lately appeared in their 
midst creating much havoc. They were not tigers they 
said, for with tigers they were familiar, but these ferocious 
creatures possessed manes like horses,* and had carried 
off and killed one after another, so that a great fear had 
fallen upon the people. 

Rice was very scarce just then in the city of Iyang. 
There was hardly food enough for five more days, so said 
the authorities, and that only for those who could pay for 
it. Some few, seeing nothing ahead but starvation, had 

* It was suggested they might be lions. 



170 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

chosen an easier death at their own hands. The robber 
bands, knowing that most of the soldiers had been sum- 
moned to the capital of the province, had waxed bolder, 
and the village people lived in a state of continual anxiety. 

Thieves and robbers are recognised evils in China at the 
best of times. There is even such a person as an " honest 
thief," meaning one who is registered in the book of the 
local king of the thieves, the " Ma Kwai," who up till 
almost the present date has enjoyed a small official post 
at the Yamen, and who, if the man wanted happened to be 
a genuine, i.e., an honest thief, could generally track him 
to earth and find some way of making good one's losses. 

Thieves are silent marauders, scooping out holes in 
mud walls, burrowing underground, and resorting to 
other rat-like methods. Occasionally they burn some 
strange kind of powder by the beds of their victims which 
acts as a sure and certain, but perfectly harmless, soporific. 
Robbers, on the contrary, follow the opposite line alto- 
gether, and the more noise they make the better ! 

Some years ago our hostess all but met her death at 
the hands of one of these turbulent groups. 

Late one evening she was alone in the house save for a 
serving- woman. Hearing a great commotion below stairs, 
and knowing by the sounds that robbers had broken in, 
she hastily flung from the window into the garden some 
packets of silver just received for the purchase of pro- 
perty. Hastily descending the stairs she planned escape 
by a back door, seldom used, which the serving-woman 
had orders to unlock. The woman, however, had mis- 
understood the command and the door remained 
fastened. As her mistress hesitated at the entrance of 
the guest hall a crowd of brigands, waving their long 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY " 171 

poles above their heads, swooped down upon her. By a 
lucky chance the poles were unprovided with the sharp 
knives usually fixed at the points. A powerful blow on 
the head almost felled her to the ground. She swayed 
and thought she must fall, and it flashed across her mind 
that this would mean certain death. With a super- 
human effort she stood her ground pressing against the 
wall, and fighting back with her arms the blows which 
now fell thick and fast. Blood was flowing from her 
wounds, and she knew that she could not hold out much 
longer, when suddenly an unexpected diversion arose, 
and a faithful Chinese helper, hearing the hubbub in the 
street, dashed forward to her assistance, hurling chairs 
and forms and anything he could lay hands on at the 
robbers, eleven men or more, who, with one accord, turned 
upon him striking with their sticks. He fought des- 
perately, but the numbers were too strong and defeat 
seemed certain. Already he was seriously hurt, his head 
gashed open, his arms bleeding, when help of a strange 
kind arrived from an unexpected quarter. Two citizens, 
passing along the street, had looked in to see what all the 
noise was about. They carried their lanterns with them 
as do all respectable Chinese when out after dark. At 
the sight of the lanterns, the innocent paper lanterns, the 
robbers looked at each other in alarm, and with a hurried 
muttering, turned precipitately and fled. It leaked out 
afterwards that the characters inscribed on the lanterns 
happened to be the same as those of the then resident 
official at the Yamen. The peaceful citizens had all 
unconsciously saved the situation and been mistaken for 
Yamen underlings, the advance guard possibly of a band 
of Yamen Isoldiers. 



172 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Land for a better and more healthy house for the 
" teacher sisters " in Iyang is difficult in these days to 
buy. No suitable site is in the market. The purchase of 
freehold property is often a complicated matter in this 
country where " things are not what they seem." Should 
one buy a field in which there happen to be some fine 
trees, it is somewhat disconcerting to discover, after the 
money has been paid over, and all things satisfactorily 
settled, that the trees belong to some one else and prob- 
ably are not for sale. In one case I remember, some fine 
camphor trees were held to be the joint property of all 
the surrounding landowners, because, from their position 
near the riverside, they were of great use in preserving 
the banks in time of flood. 

Taxes, fortunately for the individual taxpayer, though 
not for the country at large, are incredibly low. There 
was a time long years ago, when strenuous efforts were 
made to increase the public revenue, and an Emperor of 
the eleventh century hit on an ingenious method of 
levying an income tax. Those who made a false declara- 
tion were fined the exact amount understated, which 
sum was divided between the Government and the 
informers, the Government taking the lion's share. 
Needless to add the new system lacked the approval of 
the people, and therefore was soon rejected as unworkable. 

It is said to be a fundamental law in China that the 
land tax must never under any circumstances be increased. 
In Yang Keo, however, I remember a case in which, 
without injustice to any one, it might have been con- 
siderably decreased. 

In the farm in question a part of the fields had been 
washed away into the river, and still the authorities 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 173 

continued to collect the tax which the farmer continued 
to pay, choosing no doubt the easiest and cheapest 
course, as tax gatherers, in this land of uncertain laws, are 
kittle kattle folk to deal with. 

In the " Honourable River City," our next halt, the 
fame of the " Good Tidings Hall " had spread through the 
countryside, and there were few who had not heard of 
its large schools for boys and for girls, its almshouses and 
its dispensary. North, south, east, and west it is rare to 
meet a well-educated Chinese girl who does not owe, at 
all events, her early education and training to a mission 
school. 

Superstition dies hard, and even in these enlightened 
days Chinese professors will often decline to hold their 
classes in rooms on a lower floor to those occupied by the 
girls' dormitories. It is deemed unseemly that a girl or a 
woman should be placed on a higher level to a man and 
walk over a man's head even though it be only a case of 
upstairs and downstairs. Fortunately for old prejudices 
most of the mission schools are one- storied buildings, 
which simplifies matters. 

During our stay in the " Honourable River City " we 
strolled out to the open country, after the steaming heat 
of the day had somewhat evaporated, and climbed up to 
a bit of moorland ground somewhat higher than the rest, 
dotted with grave mounds. Disputes had arisen lately 
because the " teacher sisters " had purchased a piece of 
land to add to their little cemetery, a corner of which 
happened to be higher up on the hillside than a grave 
already some years in existence. The family of the dead 



174 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

man buried therein strongly protested, and pointed out 
that all prestige for the dead relative would be at an end 
if a " mere woman " were buried upon the same hill on 
a higher level. To keep the peace no objection was made 
to the shifting of the boundary stone, and all was now in 
order. 

Some twenty-five miles from the " Honourable River 
City " lives the Taoist Pope, " Heaven's Teacher," as he 
is called, a descendant of the famous Chang Tao Ling, 
who "ascended to Heaven at the age of 123," and who 
" had acquired power to command the wind and the 
thunder and to quell demons." It is 1,700 years ago and 
more since the temple was built, and ever since that time 
the office of high priest of the Taoist Sect has been a 
perquisite of the family of Chang. 

Pope Chang LXII. still occupies the seat of honour, 
though, during the reaction against idolatry in the first 
year of the Republic, he was deprived of his office, and 
the Roman Catholics, who are powerful in that particular 
neighbourhood, helped in the work of destroying the 
images. 

Lately, however, he has been reinstated and now holds 
court as usual amongst the pilgrims who, at certain 
seasons of the year, come to worship at his feet in their 
hundreds and their thousands. 

The temple is situated in a beautiful spot on the 
" Dragon Tiger Mountain," amongst magnificent trees 
and rippling springs of cold clear water, and within the 
temple walls thousands of covered pots in rows inspire 
the pilgrims with awe, for does not each pot contain a 
demon, condemned to perpetual confinement! by the 
magic powers of the " Great Wizard." On the first day 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 175 

of every month he gives audience, so the people say, to 
an invisible host of gods and demi-gods who come to 
present their compliments. 

As the river neared the region of the fearsome Po Yang 
lake the landscape changed in character, and one could 
well have imagined oneself to be in the middle of Holland 
in flood time, a Holland in which green rice fields had 
taken the place of grass land, and the windmills had 
turned into pagodas or were missing altogether. 

We halted for the night at Shwei Hong, a mere tongue 
of land, consisting of a muddy street wedged in between 
the river and the lake, and here the boatmen requested a 
meal of pork and vegetables with which to fortify their 
courage and propitiate the gods, so that the next day's 
journey might be accomplished in safety. 

Nanchang Fu, the capital of the province, lies just off 
the lake on the shores of the Gan River. 

For three miles or more the tangle of brown-roofed 
houses, and brown-hooded boats, brown masts and 
muddy water, and brown steps climbing the muddy river 
bank made a somewhat sad- toned picture, as viewed from 
the interior of our boat slipping down with the current. 
Quaint brick towers, wide at the top and narrow at the 
bottom, like small squat pyramids standing on their 
heads, cropped up at intervals near the water's edge, and 
were used for extracting lime from the blue stone, evi- 
dently an extensive industry. 

The drab- tinted picture was but the brown husk of a 
city resplendent with life and colour. In the haunts of 
the wealthy merchants the streets were not wide, the 
houses were not clean, and the pavement between them 



176 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

was black, but the air of prosperity was unmistakable. 
In the over-moving throng, consisting almost entirely of 
men, spotless white garments were the order of the day, 
and those who eschewed white wore for the most part 
silk gauze or crepe of delicate and exquisite tints, soft 
blue and silver grey, or pale saffron, and the grimy houses 
were forgotten in the blaze of gilded shop signs and 
lettered scrolls, rose-pink and turquoise-blue, gold and 
purple, which formed the background to the passing 
crowd of gaily clad pedestrians. The windowless shops 
packed with rich stores of silk and jewellery, the sedan 
chairs and the wheel-barrows of those who wished to ride, 
the streets of mud, and the grime and the smells are all 
typical of Old China, but the new order of things is break- 
ing through here and there, and near the beautiful lotus 
lake, not far from the college with its famous old library, 
stands a modern building fitted recently with electric 
plant of costly description, and close to it is the Provincial 
Assembly Hall, bran new and substantial, but without the 
usual concession to supposed foreign taste in the shape of a 
large clock face, minus a clock, painted above the gates. 

One wondered what weighty matters were being dis- 
cussed within those walls or whether, like the Mother 
Parliament in Peking, the majority of the members were 
amusing themselves elsewhere. 

These are critical times, for has not the Governor of the 
province, after summoning most of his troops to the 
capital, suddenly departed incognito, carrying away two 
million dollars. 

There are many " floating words" of coming trouble, 
but " those who know do not speak, and those who speak 
do not know." 



ON THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 177 

As to P-.Y '-.:;. Assemblies, and for that matter the 
Pe k g Pa rliament as well, one is reminded of the words in 
the old song ! c: I won : t let you play in my yard if you won't 
be Id D d 1 m '..''' Deadlocks are constantly arising because, 
forsooth, one 1 party refuses to meet another, 01 

die Nationalists in electing seven representatives, so hurt 
the feelings of the Democrats that they have left in a 
body. As to the Ca b net Ministers, no one keeps his post 
long enough to find out the extent of his duties. Like 
children, playing a game of musical chairs, they are for 
ever changing their seats and dropping out one at a time. 

The old and the new have sat down contentedly side 
by side in Nanchang. Beyond the crowded streets, and 

the dirt, and the smells, and the dandies in their exquisite 
silken garments, we are borne in our sedan chairs to a fine 
European building standing in well-kept gardens of mown 
lawns and trim shrubberies, and here we are greeted 
CO .rteously by one of the famous women of New China — 
Dr. Kahn — a product of an American Missionary Society, 
educated partly in the States, and a most able surgeon 
and physician. She conducted us over the up-to-date 
wards of her woman's hospital. The whole place was as 
spick and span as any similar institution in the home lands, 
particularly commendable this in China where the tendency 
to neglect detail, to let things slide, to ignore the stitch 
in time, is the everlasting and not unmerited reproach. 

The " cha buh do " (nearly), the " buh yao gin " (it 
doesn't matter) are at the root of so much that hinders 
progress. 

At the other end of the city the old pagoda, built to 
obstruct the escape of good influences, still stands. Many 



i-S CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

of the steps of the stairway within are broken, but the 
stout old walls have long years of life before them. From 
the weird holes near the top we could see another sign of 
the new era out in the open country — military barracks, 
built in foreign style, large and imposing. 

Enterprising citizens have many profitable schemes on 
foot. A few yards from a M pure dwelling " (Buddhist 
monastery), in which priests, draped in the orthodox red 
vestments, are chanting prayers over the coffin of a 
wealthy client, efforts are being made within the walls of 
an industrial institute to turn out European furniture in 
modern style. There is a great demand in these days for 
upholstered armchairs and writing tables and so forth, 
but those who cater for the Chinese market have realised 
two things, that the price must be low, and the colouring 
bright. We are shown with pride a library chair, the 
leather back of which is a brilliant purple, and the front 
a vivid green, price 14J., springs and padding included, 
though the latter leaves much to be desired. These are 
great days for foreign goods, either real or imitation — 
some of them figure under patriotic names such as M Love, 
the Kingdom Cloth," M The Patriotic Hair Clippers," etc. 
One thinks of the time, not so very long ago, when the 
Emperor of China in writing to the English King made 
use of these words : " As your Ambassador sees for him- 
self, we possess all things, and set no value on objects 
strange and ingenious and have no use for your country's 
manufactures ! " 

In those days, and until a very few years back, a 
traveller across the Po Yang lake journeyed by native 
boats, and in stormy weather would often take three 



OX THE "RIVER OF BROAD SINCERITY" 179 

weeks in the transit. Nowadays, in a steam-launch, 
thirty-six hours suffices, during six or seven of which the 
little vessel lies at anchor fearing possible accidents in 
the dark, for the lake, owing to the suddenness and terrible 
violence of its storms, is looked upon with considerable 
dread. Though nominally 100 miles in length and some 
thirty broad, the mud flats through the greater part of 
the year take up almost as much space as the water. At 
times one might have fancied oneself to be steaming along 
some broad yellow river with flat mud banks. Our 
rickety little launch, made in Japan, had suffered con- 
siderably from Chinese neglect. The windows were half 
broken, the doors would not shut, and when a storm came 
on, the roof of our cabin leaked so badly that it would 
have been easier to have tackled the rain outside on its 
own ground, than inside on ours. An appeal to the 
compradore brought to the rescue a man with a duster. 
He mopped assiduously and succeeded not in arresting the 
progress of the drips, but in diverting their course. " If 
seven men with seven mops mopped it for half a year," 
our plight would have been equally pitiable as long as the 
rain continued, but fortunately the weather cleared. 

" When three men walk together, there is something to 
learn," goes the Chinese saying. As we steamed past the 
imposing modern fortifications at Hokeo, a place of great 
strategical importance near the mouth of the lake at the 
entrance of the " Great River " (Yangtse), we might have 
gathered, if we had but possessed sufficient knowledge 
of the language, much interesting news relating to coming 
events from a little knot of grave-faced men, who at the 
last stopping-place had bade farewell to a jubilant young 
officer. 



CHAPTER XIV 

" Fire Medicine " * 

From the heights of a blue mountain between the 
Yangtse river and the lake, we looked once again upon 
the scene of our steam-launch journey. In the sunlit 
haze at the foot of the hills, the Po Yang lake lay like 
some enchanted world, remote amid the peaceful shadows 
of soft mauve and heliotrope that hovered here and there 
over the ridges of golden sand, in and out of which, 
silvery streams and the wide pools of a summer sea 
glittered in the light. 

A land of dreams and " summer afternoons," so would 
it seem from the heights of the blue mountains, but, alas, 
this was not so ! 

Early in the water-lily moon (July) the booming of 
cannon, only a few miles away, had given the first signal 
that the " war to punish Yuan " had commenced. 

The " missing " Governor with the two million dollars 
was, as it turned out, one of the leaders, and there were 
many good men and true who, though loth to resort to 
arms at this unpropitious moment, were at heart in 
sympathy with the cause. 

They had, as it were, hatched the republican eggs 
hiding the wee chickens under their wings, only to find 
that their nurslings had turned into ducklings and were 
swimming away into miry, stagnant water black with the 
refuse of years. 

• Gunpowder. 



"FIRE MEDICINE" 181 

" Injustice breeds injustice, curses and falsehoods do 
verily return always home, wide as they may wander." 
" Yuan," said his antagonists, " would never have been 
President save for those who had brought about the 
revolution," and now " all the birds had been shot, the 
bow was put away in obscurity " (he was ungrateful for 
services rendered). Small wonder that the discontent, 
simmering so long, had boiled over. 

; ' The Commander of all Forces demands the dismissal 
and trial of Yuan Shi Kai and his associates for murders, 
and illegal and unconstitutional misdeeds," so ran the 
proud declaration of the avenging troops, but from the 
first the " Commander of all Forces " was doomed to 
failure. It was merely a question of the longest purse, 
and Yuan, with his lately acquired foreign loan of 
£25,000,000, could defy, with impunity, half the Du-Dus * 
of China. 

" We will fight for which ever side gives us most rice 
to eat ! " said one of the soldiers. 

The heavy guns roared, and the maxims rattled at the 
foot of the mountains for the best part of three days. 
Reports poured in of the killing of the wounded, and of 
the non-burial of the dead ; of the desertion of the 
villages and the destruction of the crops. Sad little 
parties of refugees, men, women and children, labouring 
along under the heavy bundles that contained most of 
their worldly goods, toiled up the steep path from the 
plain below to seek refuge in the recesses of the moun- 
tains. Three hundred or so half-famished soldiers, a 
remnant of the defeated southern army, chose a less 

* Du-Du = Military governor. 



1 82 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

frequented way, and crossed over Nankang Pass and 
down to the shores of the Po Yang lake, for rumour 
reported that the " punish Yuan army " would make 
another and firmer stand at the Hokeo fort. 

When, however, a week or so later, as we passed down 
the very road where much of the fighting had taken place, 
the rice fields and the vegetable fields, green and un- 
trampled, were smiling in the sunshine, and never a 
trace remained of battles, great or small. 

The first outward sign of the victorious northern army 
was in the form of a meek and mild sentry standing 
under a tree at the edge of a field, and above his head he 
had rigged up a yellow oil-skin umbrella to protect him 
from the sun. 

True, in the little villages near by, the owners of the 
houses and hovels had fled to the mountains, and the 
northern soldiers were installed in their stead. 

Our little party, which had consisted of three to begin 
with, had now grown to some thirty odd, most of them 
harmless peasants, who despite the fact that they had 
" passes " of their own, preferred to make assur- 
ance doubly sure, and slide by the dreaded northern 
outposts under the shelter of privileged "outside king- 
dom folk" who possessed a permit from the general, 
and had a fleet of fearsome " pao chuan " (gun boats) out 
on the river. 

The sentries were more wide awake than they appeared 
to be, and turning to see if our stragglers had got through 
safely, we beheld one poor unfortunate seized roughly by 
the collar and forced to the ground to open his bundles for 
inspection. 



"FIRE MEDICINE" 183 

In Nanking, the city had, so report said, turned with 
scarcely a murmur to the southern side. The general in 
command had adopted a truly Oriental mode of procedure 
Inviting the leading officials of the city to meet him at 
the Yamen, he courteously requested their views on the 
situation. Most of them doubtless scented a rat, only 
one had the temerity to admit that his sympathies were 
on the side of Yuan Shi Kai. The interview at an end, he 
bowed his way out and, passing through the ante-room, 
paid for his courage with his life. 

From beginning to end the story was ever the same — 
" Great thunder and little rain " (much cry and little wool). 
The amount of ammunition spent in Shanghai, and other 
places made a great deal of noise and brought forth com- 
paratively few results. Instead of breaking up the walls 
of the Shanghai Arsenal many a shell fell harmlessly into 
the water of the creek. Soldiers firing away steadily in 
Chinkiang, but chiefly into the air, said that they did it to 
"frighten the enemy " (" giao tamen hai pa"), besides 
which, was it not the best way to keep up their own 
courage ? And no soldier was called on to give an account 
of the ammunition used. 

No Chinese troops care much about battles out in the 
open or in the daylight. 

Other methods appeal to them more strongly. 
Northerners, pursuing a fleeing force of the " rebels," as 
they were called, saw ahead of them a bit of forest land, 
the trees hung with tiny lanterns. They congratulated 
themselves on their good fortune. Evidently it was 
here that the enemy had encamped for the night. The 
northern troops stole up cautiously, completely sur- 
rounding the wood. In another moment they would be 



1 84 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

masters of the situation, but in another moment they had 
discovered their mistake. The wood was empty save for 
the lighted lanterns, and the " rebels " attacking from 
the rear caused a panic in their ranks and turned the 
pursuers into the pursued. 

Not far from that same spot the wily southerners once 
again came off successfully. Arriving at a small country 
town one day in full retreat, uniforms were discarded, 
and merchants and coolies were persuaded to change 
places with the soldiers. By the time Yuan's men 
appeared on the scenes they found no sign of fleeing 
warriors, but business going on as usual and the shop- 
keepers doing a thriving trade. It was evident that the 
" rebels " had not passed that way. A few moments 
breathing space and " a change came o'er the spirit of 
their dreams." The shopkeepers turned as if by magic 
into soldiers, and fell upon their unsuspecting enemies, 
killing and wounding. 

Meanwhile, the city of Nanking held out bravely 
against long odds. Chang Hsuan, of monkey-like 
physique, who, by several turns of fortune's wheel, had 
risen, so went the report, from the lowly position of 
groom to the old Empress Dowager to the highly- 
honoured post of Tartar General under the Ching 
dynasty, had come back to the place from which he had 
been ousted in the revolution, resolved, so it was said, 
to leave not a dog or a fowl alive, but the job was not so 
easy. There was at least one brave regiment within the 
walls which fought to the death, and in the end was prac- 
tically wiped out. 




REPUBLICAN TROOPS ON THE PURPLE MOUNTAIN (NANKING) 




REPUBLICAN SOLDIERS MARCHING INTO NANKING, 



"FIRE MEDICINE" 185 

Chang Hsuan's men, large, loose-limbed northerners, 

clad for the most part in coolies' blue cotton clothes and 

still wearing the Manchu queue, could fight with knives 

and swords better than with rifles. Besides which, they 

had a great aversion to dynamite, and when, on one 

occasion, the northern artillery battered down one of the 

largest of the city gates, and a way was clear to enter, 

they hung back, loth to run the risk of being blown to 

pieces by the mines within. That night the plucky 

defenders patched up the gates again, and for a while 

the siege continued. It was a forlorn hope, however. 

Finally Chang Hsuan agreed to talk peace, and even 

went so far as to give a promise that when he entered the 

gates there should be no massacre of the people, no looting 

of their possessions. 

The promise was kept in Oriental fashion. For three 
days of terror, the exbandits and the trained soldiers of 
the northern army plundered at will the helpless city, 
but on the fourth day Chang Hsuan himself entered the 
gates and the looting ceased ! 

Eye witnesses describe the scenes of horror of those 
three days of license — the band of young girls driven by 
sword pricks to the camp outside the walls ; the fate of the 
bedridden woman who, when ordered to get up and show 
them where her money was kept, told them that she had 
none, and that for years she had been unable to stand 
upon her feet, and she cursed them for their unseemly 
behaviour. The soldiers, laughing, cut her in pieces bit 
by bit beginning at the feet — a slow death, but in the end 
it was sure. 

In their lust for gain, men seized the rolls of cotton 
cloth and threw them down in the mud when they saw 



1 86 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

something better. Finally they grew fastidious, and 
would only burden themselves with silks and furs. 

Money and jewellery were always the first quest, and 
they grew practised in the discovery of these, finding 
treasures hidden in buckets of night soil and buried in 
the gardens. They threw down pails of water in doubtful 
places, and wherever the water disappeared quickly, 
they shrewdly guessed that the earth or the stones in that 
particular spot had been recently disturbed. 

Chang Hsuan's soldiers were no respecters of persons. 

Within the city lived a family connected with the 
President himself, and on friendly terms with more than 
one of the northern generals. The head of the household 
escaped by a " layer of skin," hastily disguising herself 
as one of the serving-women. She sat under cover of a 
loaded rifle whilst the looters tore up the floors and 
smashed the furniture, appropriating whatever they 
fancied, but searching in vain for the jewels. " She is 
only a servant," said one ; " never mind her," and the 
loaded rifle was reserved for a bigger job. Seeking for 
hidden treasure, they smashed open coffins, turned over 
jars of wine and oil, drove their spears into brushwood, 
and under beds, piercing the flesh of those who were 
hiding there, and carried off all the warm clothing and 
the bedding they could find, even the treasured sets of 
burial clothes stored against the day of need by a poor 
old dame whose tears trickled down her cheeks as she 
told us of her loss. A loss she would never now be able to 
repair, and which might, for all she knew, make the next 
world a very bitter place to live in. 

" I shall never forget it till I have no teeth," said a 
younger woman, one of those who had hidden behind the 



"FIRE MEDICINE" 187 

brushwood, but had escaped injury, on condition that 
she and those with her stood without moving whilst the 
soldiers took what they pleased. 

Though more than a month has passed since the end of 
the siege, the city is still like a city on strike. Most of the 
shops are shut up, and but for the soldiers and beggars 
there would be few people in the streets. 

Here and there some humble food store has opened its 
doors once again, but many others are afraid to follow 
suit, for the soldiers commandeer their goods, or dog the 
footsteps of any likely purchaser, demanding from the 
helpless shopkeeper a share in the profits. 

It is true that some thousands of smart Tientsin police 
have been sent by Yuan Shi Kai to keep order. Along the 
four miles of road from the station to the city they stand 
at intervals of fifty yards, but like all Chinese police are 
loth to interfere with other people's business. A filthy 
beggar, chasing after my rickshaw, butts into the fifth 
rib of one of these guardians of the peace. Surely now 
the headlong career of my persecutor will be arrested, 
but no, the policeman looks upon the collision as part of 
the day's work, and the beggar, rebuffed for one short 
moment, soon returns to his lawful prey. 

" It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good," and 
the rickshaw coolies and others of their ilk have " struck 
oil " of late. Many of them have acted as guides to the 
houses of the well-to-do, receiving in return for their 
services, portions of loot, and in many a mat hovel and 
mud cabin priceless treasures have been " warehoused " 
till their new owners were in a position to reclaim them. 

Business, in these unhappy times, is mostly conducted 



1 88 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

at night in the " black market," and here, in these haunts 
of mystery, disposers of stolen property, and all who 
desire to avoid public notice, make their bargains. 

One piece of work, and only one, has been put in hand 
without delay, and that is the manufacture of new city 
gates, and the repairing of the walls, from which half- 
embedded shells are still projecting, too high up to remove. 

On October loth, the third anniversary of the " People's 
Kingdom," the inauguration of the President is cele- 
brated in the stricken city. From closed houses and 
beshuttered shops the " five coloured " flags are hung 
forth. But those signs of rejoicing are deceptive, for the 
flags, it seems, were forced on unwilling purchasers by 
the soldiers. 

Four days ago in the northern capital Yuan Shi Kai 
achieved his own election to the Presidency by equally 
masterful methods of a somewhat different nature, and 
in a country that is outwardly at peace, a reign of terror 
is in progress. 

In one city, supposed to be in sympathy with the 
defeated southerners, no fewer than 250 people — men 
women, and children — were put to death during the short 
space of four weeks, guilty or innocent, it was all the 
same. A small boy, humming a snatch of a spirited 
" rebel " song, which he had often heard sung by the 
troops on their way to Nanking, was hauled off to the 
shambles and cut to pieces. A man standing near tried 
to protect him, for was not the boy his son ? " If you 
are his father we will have you killed too," said the 
soldiers, but the crowd gathering round intervened. 
" The man was no relation at all ! " they protested, and 



"FIRE MEDICINE" 189 

the soldiers let him go. An old woman on her way home 
from market had purchased more fish than usual 
" Come now," said the soldiers, " that is more than you 
can possibly eat — you must be going to feed the rebels " ; 
so they seized on the fish, and, to save trouble, killed the 
woman on the spot. It was a crime to hum the rebel 
song, or to say one to another that " Things are not 
peaceful "—it was almost a crime to live. Men were 
shot for this and shot for the other, sometimes thirty a 
day ; and, bit by bit, those who remained lapsed into 
silence — the silence of despair, of utter helplessness. 
For the time being they had no other way. " Would that 
there had never been a revolution and a ' People's 
Kingdom ' " said one, " if all our rice is to be diseased ! " 

Shanghai and other cities are plentifully provided with 
" eyes and ears " (spies), some of whom are women. As 
in the days of the French Revolution, " one can be 
suspect of being suspect," and queer stories are told of 
mysterious disappearances and arrests of the innocent 
as well as of the guilty. At a dinner party in one of the 
provincial capitals the host was suddenly called away by 
a friend, who must speak a few words on an urgent 
matter of business. He would return shortly, but the even- 
ing passed, the guests departed, and still he did not come 
back. Early the next morning his anxious wife, hearing 
disquieting rumours, repaired with all haste to the Yamen 
for information. A Yamen underling forced into her 
unwilling hands two dollars and a blank piece of paper ! 
With a cry of terror she realised the significance of this 
strange offering. 

With it she had to buy tin-foil money to burn upon her 
husband's grave. 



190 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" Then show me his coffin ! " she cried. 

" Impossible," said the man, " for there are two 
coffins. We know not which is which." 

And his crime ? Well, nothing was proved. He was 
" suspect," that was all, and a friend of those who had 
wished to punish Yuan. 

Now and then the " suspect " is a girl. More than 
one has been discovered travelling by the railroad to 
Hangchow with hair elaborately dressed, not over a 
frame, but over a bomb, and another young " woman," 
in a delicate state of health and in a most unfit condition 
to travel, turned out to be a youth, who had resorted to 
this ingenious, though disgusting method of concealing, 
not one bomb, but several. 

How will it all end ? Young China has expected " an 
egg to crow " and to hurry things on too quickly, but 
certain it is that some of the ablest men in the countrv 
have gone under in the conflict, and those who remained 
have " retired into the forest." 

" Better be a dog in peace than a man in anarchy," 
say the Chinese, and " All anarchy, all evil and injustice 
is, by the nature of it, dragon's teeth — suicidal, and 
cannot endure ! " says Carlyle. 

History repeats itself, but in these days there is no 
Duke of Shao to give his master a timely warning. 

" Where are your gossipers now ? " said the Emperor 
Li Wang (870 b.c.) to his minister, the Duke of Shao, 
after summary execution of suspected slanderers. 

" All you have brought about," came the answer, " is 
a screen which prevents you from learning the real 



"FIRE MEDICINE" 191 

sentiments of the people, but you should know that it is 
more dangerous to shut the people's mouths than to 
stop the waters of a river." 

It was considered peculiarly unlucky that on the 
fifteenth of the eighth moon, on the very night when so 
many people in all parts of the country had prepared 
their paper shrines with flags and red candles and incense 
sticks in honour of the moon goddess, and had spread 
a goodly feast of sweetmeats and fruits and moon-cakes 
for her and for the household out in the open courtyard, 
that the dreaded dog should choose that night of all 
others for his evil pursuits.* 

As his black shadow crept further and further along, 
blocking out the light, the air was rent by the explosion 
of many millions of fire crackers, almost deafening to 
mortals, and loud enough in all conscience to frighten 
away the foe. Besides, as they knew by experience, this 
means of prevention had never yet been known to fail. 

Before so very long all was peace once more, and up 
and down the street devout worshippers set fire to stacks 
of tin-foil money, killing thereby " two birds with one 
stone," as this would not only please the moon god- 
dess, but provide pocket money for the spirits of the 
ancestors. 

The moon-cakes — the size of small buns, filled with 
musty almond paste — the melons and other dainties 
were decorated with rough designs representing either a 
rabbit, or occasionally a toad, for of the seven precious 
things of which the moon is composed, it is said that in 
the centre stands a three-footed animal not unlike a toad, 

• The Chinese consider that an eclipse is caused by a species of dog that is 
trying to eat up the moon. 



i 9 2 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

but some maintain that the figure in the moon is nothing 
but a " jade rabbit " compounding medicines, and others 
say that it is only a woman. 

The task of the court astronomers, in the old days, 
was certainly no sinecure. An imperial edict of those 
times (2159 b.c.) announces that, "When the astro- 
nomers give notice of an eclipse too soon, let them be 
put to death without any forgiveness, and when after 
the time, let the same thing happen to them." 

Cheng Ki Tung, the famous statesman of modern 
times, tells a picturesque story of the goddess of the 
moon. She promised an old woman a gift of her own 
choosing. The thrifty soul put her hand to her mouth 
and kept it there, indicating that her great desire in this 
world was never to be without food. Alas ! what was 
her horror the next morning to find that during the night 
she had grown a beard of extensive dimensions, for the 
moon goddess had altogether mistaken her meaning. 



CHAPTER XV 

Combed by the Wind and Washed by the Rain 

In another three years, said the Belgian engineers, 
the " fire-carriage " would go all the way to Si An Fu, 
the capital of Shensi, which now is called by the Chinese 
a " wilderness place," but was once upon a time the chief 
city of China. The Republic, in the first flush of enthu- 
siasm and the self-confidence born of inexperience, had 
risen to her feet after the revolution and desired to build 
her own railways. True, the money did not disappear 
in station-master's salaries before the stations had been 
built, as is said to have been the case in Szechewan, 
for the simple reason probably that there was next to no 
money to be had. Finally, therefore, and very sensibly, 
Belgian engineers, backed by a substantial Belgian loan, 
were permitted to take the business in hand for the 
Chinese Government. 

Already the " iron-road " had penetrated some eighty 
miles or so into the wide tract of loess country which lies 
between Honan Fu and the border of the province — a 
comparatively treeless region, a land of dust and sand 
and grit, the colour and much the consistency of 
Fuller's earth. 

It had been a dry season, and though every level spot 
was sown with winter wheat, the tips of the blades above 
the ground were so thickly plastered with dust that 
hardly a speck of green was to be seen ; nothing to relieve 



i 9 4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

the dead monotony of the drab-tinted earth, nothing 
except a patch of golden scarlet persimmons, ripe and 
over-ripe, spread out for sale, on trays or in shallow 
baskets, at rare intervals by the wayside. 

But the road itself was not monotonous, one could 
wish it were more so. Owing to the vertical cleavage of 
the loess soil, this land of dust is broken up into ravines 
and gullies, into cliffs and terraces, and here and there 
the face of a cliff, dug out and fitted with a door, serves 
as a dwelling-house. 

The road is often little more than a deep and sandy 

ditch, wedged in between high walls of caked sand, and 

only wide enough for a single cart, but there is much 

traffic on this narrow highway, merchandise from the 

far west, from Thibet, from Central Asia, skins, drugs, 

giain, and cotton and tobacco, and over and over again 

the unwieldy carts, with their animals loosely roped 

together by ropes attached to the axle, are hauled up at 

a dangerous angle on precipitous banks, the occupant is 

unceremoniously tipped back, feet in the air, whilst 

amidst shouting and clamour, much cracking of whips, 

and words, and colliding of iron-bound cart wheels, and 

a seemingly inextricable tangle of kicking mules and 

jibbing horses, of knotted ropes and excited muleteers, 

further progress is again made possible, no one knows 

how, and the caravans from the east and west pass each 

other by, and fall back once more into silence. 

The carts are without springs, and without seats, and 
when the deep ruts tumble over into holes or climb up 
on to fallen rocks, the unhappy occupant clings like a 
drowning cat to any available support, and presses back 
into the bedding, with which a vain attempt has been made 



COMBED BY WIND AND WASHED BY RAIN 195 

to turn the cart into a kind of padded room Other- 
wise, he will be flung from side to side without mercy 
and bruised and battered and buffeted. As it is, not a few 
unpleasant encounters with the unyielding woodwork, and 
much shaking of nerves and bones is inevitable. 

There are agonising moments, generally in or near a 
village, when the roadway is littered with boulders, and 
great heaps of loose paving stones. Can this be an 
abortive attempt at road mending ? Alas, no ! Rather 
the reverse. These stony beds, over which the iron- 
bound wheels (411 lbs. in weight) are grinding and 
scrunching, whilst the animals plunge, and the cart 
rocks and shivers, merely signify that the wall of a house 
has tumbled over at this particular spot, years ago 
possibly, and has been allowed to remain. 

To put up cheerfully with the inevitable is certainly 
commendable, but to submit with equal cheerfulness to 
that which could well be avoided is to a Western mind 
an irritating trait in the Chinese character. 

_ In the dry season of the year we travel day after day 
in a dense cloud of dust-fine, insidious, powdery dust 
of loess soil. It lines and plasters our faces till we look 
more like corpses than living folk, it forces its way into 
our mouths till we are literally « biting the dust " It 
powders our hair, and gets into the tins of jam and 
butter, covering them with grit. It mingles with the 
potted meat, adding a fresh flavour, and collects in drifts 
of sand on our rugs and cushions. It hangs like a veil 
before our eyes, and haunts us even in the inns at night 

The inns of this country of « yellow earth," as the 
Chinese call it, are little more than dust themselves dust 



196 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

and water ; in other words, mud — low one-storied 
buildings of dry mud round a yard of wet mud ! They 
are more adapted for beasts than men. The paper panes 
are torn off the windows, the hinges are broken on the 
doors. There is often no attempt at furniture over and 
above the inevitable " kang," a raised platform built of 
mud, under which a smouldering fire of mud and manure 
can be provided, should one require such a luxury. One 
sighs for the hot baths of Kiangsi, but here even a 
" wash face basin," as they call it, of fresh water from the 
inn kitchen is all one can get, and sometimes even that 
must be bought from a tea shop some yards down the 
street. At the best it is seldom unadulterated, for small 
particles of the ubiquitous dust are swimming on the 
surface. Honanese do not complain. " A Honan man," 
goes the proverb, " never washes his feet unless he fords 
a river ! " The bedding, extricated from the dust-lined 
carts, emits a smothering cloud of powdery loess as it is 
flung down on the " kang." 

With time and a spade one could dig up the mud floor 
and make it level, but the Chinese prefer it undulating, 
as this forms a better sink. 

They have picturesque names for their inns. " The 
Hotel of Accomplished Wishes," " The Inn of Heavenly 
Origin," " The Pearl that Illumines the Night." 

At the " Illuminating Pearl " we arrived late. Other 
" keh " (guests) had taken the best rooms, and we must be 
content with|little more than a mud" kang" and a rubbish 
heap inside four stuffy walls, and to get to this unsavoury 
hole it was necessary to go through two other " sleeping 
apartments " already fully occupied, in one of which 
the landlord himself lay snoring. 



COMBED BY WIND AND WASHED BY RAIN 197 

The early start, often in the dark hours before the 
dawn, was possibly a blessing in disguise. Daylight 
might have disclosed unpleasant details in our surround- 
ings which, the "eye ne'er seeing, the heart ne'er grieved." 
" To rise so early in the morning seems to be a foolish 
Western practice," said Li Hung Chang, but on these 
road journeys in China one has no alternative. Neither 
carters nor travellers wish to be benighted on lonely 
roads not unfrequented by bandits. 

Old Chang, my elderly servant and a local product, 
was evidently too accustomed to the general filth of the 
inns even to notice its existence. 

All things considered, he was more of a hindrance than 
a help. He blackened the tea cloth and broke the 
crockery. He stole some spoons from an inn, thinking 
they were mine (fortunately they were only made of 
tin), but sought to propitiate me with offerings by the 
way, pressing on my acceptance with his dirt-begrimed 
fingers, a sweet potato just baked. " It's not cold," he 
said, meaning it was hot, or a persimmon, ripe and red. 
'' It is not bitter," he said, meaning it was sweet, and 
wondering at my unwillingness to " chih " (eat). On 
one occasion he bought me the leg of a chicken, ready 
cooked, for the small sum of one penny, and showed it me 
triumphantly reposing in his unwashed hand. When 
recooked in butter, however, it was quite palatable. 
Fortunately, there were always " old eggs," i.e., hard- 
boiled eggs, to fall back on. 

: ' Tung Gwan is the lock. Si An the key. Peking the 
treasure," goes the saying, and a spur of the Tsingling 
mountain range makes a natural fortress between the 



198 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

province of Honan and that of Shensi. The narrow 
road, like a deep trough, worms its way between the high 
cliffs, climbing slowly, through beds of loess sand, over 
the mountain pass. 

Tung Gwan, the lock, was taken and retaken time 
and time again during the revolution. Three provinces, 
Honan, Shensi, and Shansi, meet at this point, and the 
Yellow river, some 500 yards wide, flows past the city 
wall, flows somewhat sullenly, for in these days no one 
propitiates the river god with handsome brides. Long 
ago, when the neighbouring states were at war with each 
other, custom demanded that some beautiful maiden be 
thrown into the yellow waters as an offering to the god, 
and this sacrifice never failed to bring prosperity to the 
countryside. 

There is no love lost between the people of Honan and 
their neighbours, and at Tung Gwan, the border city, 
one prepares to step, as it were, into a new country. 

The Honanese are hot-tempered, conservative, rough 
and uncompromising in manner, and, though distinctly 
intelligent, are very material in their tastes.* The 
people of Shensi, on the contrary, possess less marked 
characteristics, and are, in fact, a mixture of many 
types, owing to immigration in the past from five 
different provinces. 

Up till now, travelling as we have been, in old-fashioned 
Honan, most of the people have worn their queues in 
true Manchu fashion, and the copper coins (10 cent 
pieces) of the " great illustrious (Manchu) dynasty " 
have been more in favour than those of the New Republic. 
As a further point of difference between the two pro- 

* Yuan Shi Kai was a Honanese. 



COMBED BY WIND AND WASHED BY RAIN 199 

vinces, the gauge of the ruts in the sandy roads have 
been adapted to Honan carts only. 

At Tung Gwan, the border city, every axle of every 
cart must be changed to suit the new conditions. 

How is it, one asks oneself, that these sons of Han, 
the teachers of the world, as they might once have been 
called, are still content, exasperatingly content, to travel 
along these rutted tracks, called by courtesy roads, in 
carts without springs and without seats. One reason 
suggests itself as now and again we come across some 
fellow traveller. He lies asleep, regardless of the bump- 
ing and the buffeting, blissfully unconscious of the 
humps and the holes as the iron-bound wheels plunge 
into the one and over the other. He can see no cause 
for complaint, not at least as regards personal comfort. 
Neither will he recoil from the filth of the inn when he 
gets to the end of the day's journey. He will squat at 
ease on the mud "kang," and enjoy to the full the savoury 
dishes of vermicilli and pork and vegetables, which are 
brought by the unsavoury underling from a black and 
greasy cook-shop down the street. 

Later on he will sleep the sleep of the well-fed, undis- 
turbed by the crawling of the insects, the braying of the 
donkeys, the stamping of the mules, the yelling of the 
carters, which continues through the greater part of the 
night, as the men go to and fro amongst their animals, 
feeding and watering them. 

To undress and redress by the dim light of a wick 
floating in a saucer of oil, half of which is trickling down 
the mud wall and emitting an evil smell, will be no great 
hardship, for the simple reason that he takes off nothing 
but an upper garment, which is soon replaced. 



200 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Though the plain of Si An, through which we are now 
travelling, is still composed mainly of the same old loess 
soil, a greater supply of water and different climatic 
conditions considerably alter the face of the landscape. 
Trees, mostly thinly-attired willow trees, stand, with 
many gaps in the line, along the side of the road, which 
is no longer a mere ditch wedged in between high cliffs, 
but has widened out and is sprawling like a strip of 
ploughed upland across limitless fields, green with 
sprouting wheat and other crops. 

The Si An plain, some 90 miles wide and 200 miles 
long, is famous for its fertility. Maize and millet, and 
wheat and hemp, vegetables and cotton, and many 
kinds of fruit grow there in plenty, but, alas, to cultivate 
fruit trees properly takes too much time and care for 
the Chinese, who appreciate, above all things, quick 
profits, besides which, they see nothing wrong about the 
flavourless pears and peaches or the undersized cherries. 
In the good old days of Kublai Khan, the Emperor 
himself planted trees, and his subjects followed suit, for 
it was popularly supposed in those happy times that 
the planting of trees lengthened the life of the planter. 
One is almost sorry the superstition has died out. The 
pine and the Cyprus, moreover, were looked upon as 
great blessings to mankind — a tonic made of the flowers 
and sap conducing to good health and long days. The 
dearth of trees in some parts of China is distressing. 
Now and again a philanthropist makes an effort to 
improve matters. In the province of Shansi, on one 
occasion, sacks of acorns were presented to the people, 
in the hope of forests of oaks at some far distant date, 
but the recipients, with an eye to the present rather than 



COMBED BY WIND AND WASHED BY RAIN 201 

the future, used them without the slightest compunction 
for the feeding of their pigs. 

Things have so changed, alas, since the days of Kublai 
Khan, that on the road to Si An tree murderers are at 
their evil deeds, and here and there the bark has been 
peeled from a well-grown trunk, and the tree is slowly 
bleeding to death. 

What a senseless proceeding ! Nay, for the perpetrator 
of the mischief is in need of timber and a live tree may 
not be cut down on the public highway, but a dead tree — 
ah, that is another matter ! 

The milestones along this Shensi road are massive, 
tower-like erections, squat and square, some twenty feet 
or so high. 

Once upon a time they marked the trade route across 
the Empire every ten "li" all the way to Turkestan. Now 
only comparatively few are left, and in some parts of the 
country they have disappeared altogether. 

" In spring keep warm, in autumn keep cold, and you 
will never be ill," runs the Chinese saying. There was 
no difficulty certainly in keeping cold in that Si An 
plain. As we passed the great stone bridge, a third of 
a mile long, over the River Wei, the sleet that had been 
driving in our faces all day turned to snow, and the 
willows in their scanty attire shivered in the icy wind 
which swept pitilessly across the open fields. In another 
seven miles or so we were in sight of the famous " walls 
of gold " and Si An Fu 5 the city of " Western Peace," 
but names go by contraries in China, and few cities 
in all her vast domain have known less of peace and more 
of war. 



CHAPTER XVI 

The City of Western Peace 

Si An was for many years a royal city, the greatest 
in the land. Wu Wang, the martial, who lived about 
the time of Samuel, was the first Emperor to make it 
his capital. Some nine hundred years later Shih Huang 
Di, the Napoleon of China, reigned there in state. It 
was he who built the great wall and burnt all the books. 
There are villages not far away which bear in their 
names traces of that deed of tyranny. " The Hamlet 
of the Paper Fire," " The Village of the Heap of Cinders," 
and still the field is pointed out in which those 450 luck- 
less scholars were buried up to their necks in earth, 
and ploughs driven over their defenceless heads. This 
tyrant, not unnaturally perhaps, was haunted by a fear 
of death, and, with the idea of improving matters for 
him in the next world, the underground palace, about 
one and a half miles in extent, which formed his tomb, 
was one of the most costly undertakings ever put into 
execution. A roof of azure blue represented the sky, 
the bronze floor, " set " with miniature rivers of quick- 
silver, resembled the earth. Walls were inlaid with 
precious stones and, in accordance with time-honoured 
custom, the ladies of the Imperial harem and all the 
attendants were buried alive with their dead master. 
As a protection against thieves, deadly machines, like 
automatic archers, were placed inside the entrance. The 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 203 

Emperor's tomb is said to be the original site of Aladdin's 
cave in the " Arabian Nights," the legend having been 
carried back to Arabia by the Arab traders in the days 
of the Tang dynasty. Not a vestige now remains of the 
underground palace. Indeed, history relates that before 
the end of that same dynasty the great conqueror's tomb 
was destroyed. People still point out the place that it 
occupied on the hillside near the sulphur springs of the 
little town of Lintung, some seventeen miles from the 
east gate of Si An Fu, and doubtless the " fountain of 
clear water," where Aladdin and the magician sat down 
to rest on their way to the cave, is the original spring 
now utilised for sulphur baths and enclosed in picturesque 
bathhouses. 

During the centuries of anarchy in the days of the three 
kingdoms our " City of Western Peace," being one of the 
important strongholds of the day, again passed through 
troublous times. For a while, however, a period of calm 
intervened under the great Tai Tsung (627 — 650), who, 
instead of burning books and burying scholars, built a 
famous library, and encouraged, not only art and learn- 
ing, but the religions both of the East and the West — 
Nestorians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Mohammedans, all 
enjoyed the protection of this broad-minded Tai Tsung. 
Chang Su, his Empress, is one of the famous characters 
of Chinese history. On her deathbed she aspired to no 
priceless tombs or rivers of quicksilver, but said : " All 
I desire in my coffin is a tile for my pillow and wooden 
pins for my hair," and, looking at those who stood 
around, she continued, " Associate with the good and 
shun the company of the evil." Some years later a 
second public burning took place in the environs of 



k>4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Si An Fu, not of books this time nor of scholars, but of 

the tine clothe? and rich jewels of the palace ladies. 
Henceforth, only the Empress was to be allowed to wear 
silk and satin, and the silk factories were closed through- 
out the land. This reign of economy was short-lived, 
however, and the same frugal court grew into one of the 
most extravagant, though, at the same time, one of the 
most brilliant of the day, until, alas, came a repetition 
of the old story so often met with in the annals of 
Chinese history, that of a beautiful concubine, a powerful 
eunuch, and an execrated minister with " honey on his 
lips and in his hand a sword." 

In the eighth century the Thibetans sacked the city 
of Si An. In the ninth century a terrible religious per- 
secution took place, in which the Nestorians disappeared 
for ever, but the Buddhists, owing to their vast numbers, 
revived again in time. During the tenth century re- 
bellion reigned throughout the land, but little more is 
heard of rite ** City of Western Peace M till the closing days 
of the Ming dynasty in the seventeenth century, when 
the rebel Li captured the place, giving his soldiers three 
days license to do whatsoever they pleased within the 
walls. For three months Li defied his enemies in the 
old capital, but the Manchus came off victoriously in the 
end, and stationed within its gates one of the largest 
garrisons of banner-men throughout the land. But even 
thev are now no more, and Si An Fu, the " City of 
Western Peace," covered itself with shame in the cold- 
blooded, merciless massacre of the descendants of these 
same banner-men three short years ago. 

Not a house, not a hut remains, not a vestige of the 
wooded gardens which were once the pride of the Manchu 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 205 

quarter — nothing but a dreary tract of land, broken by 
sandy hollow-,, and barren ground littered with stones. 
The hollows are many of them graves — 300 dead bodies 
in each according to regulations. Ten thousand or 
more had been massacred, so said report, but some had 
died another way. They had sought to hide in the caves, 
of which there were not a few within the precincts of 
that Manchu city ; but dead bodies had been thrown 
in on top of them, blocking the outlet, rotting as they 
lay, and burying alive, in the most horrible way imagin- 
able, the living souls within. A mere remnant had 
escaped — no one quite knew how. Some few hundreds 
were eking out a meagre existence at an industrial 
institution established for their benefit. One used to 
wonder what they felt like, these poor survivors who had 
gone through the reign of terror, who had lost their all, 
who had, as it were, come back to life to find their friends 
and their families and their homes all swept away, and 
of all the Manchu city nothing left but graves. 

A " sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier 
things ! " but to outsiders they seemed remarkably 
passive ; nay, almost content. One asked oneself, was 
this placidity owing to a " laugh face shell " (mask), or 
did they, luckily for themselves perhaps, lack in imagina- 
tive power ? 

The " walls of gold," some ten miles in extent, are 
chiefly made of mud and bricks, but, being forty feet 
high and forty feet wide, are still as strong and formidable 
as they were in the days of their youth, nearly a thousand 
years ago. One does not wonder then, in this land of 
euphemisms, that they should have acquired so proud a 



:?o CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

title. The gates, north, south, east and west, crowned 
by '.. .vers, punctured by tiny windows (ill one tower 

alone there are forty-seven W .dows), are the finest in 
the land, finer even than those in Peking- 

We, who came from the east, passed under the " Portal 
of Eternal Happiness," the last of the three great gates, 
ded the one from the other, as it were, by long 
slanting ** hyphens." At this busy moment of the day, 
not long before the hour of closing for the night, it would 
set D ..s though some big scrimmage were taking plaee. 
Carts, bullocks, mules, horses, and wheel-barrows have 
apparently all got entangled together in a medley of rope 
harness under the dark tunnelled archway. The earters 
are yelling and cracking their whips, the coolies are 
shouting and edging their way through with their 
burdens, hurrying pedestrians are brought to a sudden 
standstill jambed between the wheels and the mules. 
Sellers of cakes and other oddments press up close to the 
walls, and continue to cry their wares even in the clamour 
and the clatter. Everybody shouts at once, giving advice 
to everybody else and uttering imprecations. 

" You grandson of a tortoise ! " says one. 

" You rabbit ! " comes the still more abusive rejoinder. 

What will the end be ? Broken bones and stampeding 
horses, and carts smashed to smithereens ; nay, for this 
is China — the greater the noise the less the damage. 
As by magic, our animals suddenly extricate themselves 
from the msUs and, when once on the other side of the 
" Gate of Eternal Happiness " all is peace. The street 
that opens out before us is of such immense width that, 
in spite of the crowded traffic ever oozing from the narrow 
precincts of the archway, the general impression is one 



THE CITY 01 WESTERN PEACE 207 

ei emptiness. To either lide of us, dwarfed by die 
irnrn long lines of low buildings 

of the "coach-house arid Stable" Style of architecture. 

In reality they are beshuttered shops which, with a I 
exception*, are attU awaiting occupants. Some day it 
it hoped this will be a prosperous business quarter, but 
a1 present the people have hardly grown accustomed to 
doing their marketing, or setting up their wares, in these 

once sacred precincts of the now defunct Manchu 
city. Glance behind those brand-new buildings and 
behold the desolate tract of stone littered-ground and 
the hollows filled with dead. 

The y-ry timber that has been used in the building 
came from the Manchu gardens, and, being green WO 
wholly unseasoned, is already beginning to show ominous 

signs of unfitness* 

Times are certainly changing, and in this modern 
ftreel of Si An the houses are all of the same height, 
which fact alone would once have been considered 
extremely unlucky. 

Near the busy centre of the city the " coach-houses " 
have turned one and all into open-fronted shops, the 
stock-in-trade of which is leaking out on to the sidewalk 
in true Chinese style, and already dust and neglect have 
dispelled the idea of new wood and shining varnish. 

The picturesque " bell tower," with its padoga roof, 
in which a great bell, some ten feet long, sounds forth 
the hour both day and night, is 500 years old or more, 
and stands at the centre of four cross-roads in the middle 
oi the city. 

Under the archway, sellers of clothes, old and new, are 
utilising the walls for the display of their goods, for this 



208 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

is a free country ! Garments, blue and grey and black, 
occupy, like Academy pictures, every available bit of 
wall space on both sides of the road. Overhead, in the 
top loft of the tower, hangs the bell, and in a corner of 
the bell- loft behind a frail partition, live the bellringers. 
" One servant," goes the Chinese saying, " will carry 
two buckets of water. Two servants will carry one 
bucket between them, and three will buy water." 

So has it been in the case of the bellringers. Once 
upon a time one custodian of the bell tower was con- 
sidered sufficient, later on, two were supplied, and now 
a third has been added to the staff to buy vegetables for 
the other two, and there is no one sufficiently disengaged 
to ring the bell ! On the day of our visit the hour of 
three had struck some moments before on the clock of 
cheap German make, the proud possession of the bell- 
ringers, and suggestive sounds of yawning issued from 
behind the partitions, but why disturb oneself for so 
small a matter ? " It is better to sit than to walk, it is 
better to lie down than to sit, and still better to sleep 
than do either," so goes the Chinese saying. O, ye sons 
of Han, you have waked me too early ; I will slumber 
again. It is not part of your training to be faithful in a 
few things ; and this slackness in small matters is the 
curse of the country. 

If by any unlikely chance, however, a citizen had 
listened for the pealing of the bell he would not have 
been disappointed. Some rollicking young soldiers, 
following in our wake, flung the log of wood, suspended 
on a beam and supplied for that purpose, once, twice 
and thrice against the sonorous metal. 

Si An Fu was once a city of superb palaces, of splendid 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 209 

theatres and sumptuous sepulchres, and now it has long 
ceased to be royal and has become bourgeois. The 
princely halls, of olden days inlaid with jade and pearls, 
have left no trace behind. In their stead the low brown- 
roofed houses of the " mai mai ren " (shopkeepers), with 
their mud and plaster walls squeezed up alongside of 
each other, so that one wall serves for two houses at 
the very least,* remind one of the way in which the 
people themselves, all over the land, are linked together 
by their family clans, their multitudinous guilds, their 
almost innumerable secret societies. 

The main street from the bell tower in the centre of 
the city to the gates of " Assured Peace," leading to 
the west, is paved, but alas, the paving stones are at 
every kind of an angle, and sometimes missing altogether. 
To ride over them in a city cart is to undergo physical 
torture, and at the end of the journey every internal 
organ seems to have been momentarily displaced. 

Many of the busiest thoroughfares are still left in a 
state of nature. A dry mud bank constitutes the side- 
walk, a wet mud ditch rising into lumps and falling into 
holes does duty for the road. In wet weather, water, 
black or brown, as the case may be, fills the ditch and a 
slippery, shining " chocolate " paste covers the banks. 
There are places where bank and ditch become one, and 
subside together at the bottom of the water. The 
unlucky pedestrian, drawn up suddenly in his halting 
progress, wonders if he shall wade through the black 
slush, which will probably be nearly up to his waist, or 
ride across on unsavoury two-legged steeds, in the form 
of filth-clogged beggars, hung, rather than clothed, in 

* In Si An detached houses are almost unknown. 



210 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

vermin-haunted rags, who are anxiously waiting to be 
hired. A farthing, or rather its equivalent in cash, is all 
the payment required. 

When seen from the top of the city walls in winter 
time, Si An is one wide sea of roof tops crouching under 
a pall of dust. The gaps between the houses are filled 
in by ailanthus trees, with dusty leafless branches. At 
rare intervals a picturesque tower with gracefully tip- 
tilted roofs shoots up high above the squat houses, like 
a slender brown tree in a garden of bushes. 

The ailanthus is the " tree of heaven," so called because 
it seeds itself everywhere, and grows with the freedom 
and persistence of a weed. In America they call it a 
pest, but here in this sparsely-wooded land, where more 
valuable trees have disappeared by fair means or foul, 
the common ailanthus becomes a godsend. 

Though in residential streets and by-roads and back 
lanes the keynote of the city is dry mud of a khaki tint, 
the busy thoroughfares are glorified by rich splashes of 
colour against a background of dark woodwork and 
gilded shop signs, the cornflower and periwinkle blue of 
the men's garments, with sometimes a gay addition in 
the shape of leggings of apple green or saffron yellow, 
the poppy red or petunia pink of some small child's gala 
attire, the crimson lanterns swinging above the open- 
fronted shops, the carts with hoods of royal blue and 
vivid green, the piles of oranges, the scarlet persimmons, 
the red chillies, the porcelain vases and jade ornaments, 
and other curios spread out upon the ground — all add 
touches of rich colour to the scene. 

At street corners, and wherever men congregate, open- 
air restaurants carry on a surprisingly prosperous trade. 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 211 

An artist would delight in the picturesque colouring 
of these tiny food stalls. A tidy housewife would revel 
in the ingenious way in which there is a place for every- 
thing and everything in its place. So surpassingly 
excellent is the fare provided, that many a well-to-do 
epicure will linger in passing, for a meal at one of these 
alfresco dining-rooms. 

In democratic China the publicity of the affair and the 
mixed company matters not a jot. Two round red 
lacquer boxes (like mammoth hat boxes), decorated with 
paintings of full-blown peonies, form the basis of the 
erection. The table — a wide slab of wood — rests upon 
these boxes, and the covered jars and elegant bowls of 
dark blue and white porcelain down the centre of the 
table contain delicacies of various descriptions. Low 
lacquered forms accommodate the guests, a basin and 
a pair of chop sticks are placed before each, and a good 
square meal can be purchased for fivepence or sixpence, 
whereas most of the diners contrive to feed well on a far 
less extravagant sum ! Savoury dishes from a cauldron 
on a charcoal fire at the corner of the table are dished up 
hot and steaming as required. In the deepening 
twilight the glowing charcoal of the stove, and the rays 
of a crimson lantern overhead throw a warm and 
cheerful light upon the scene. 

Later on much of the paraphernalia will be packed 
into the two boxes with the peonies, and the whole 
establishment will depart for the night. 

There is still an Imperial City in Si An, but it consists 
of a wide tract of grass land surrounded by a half-ruined 
wall and entered by a fine old archway. A rough -hewn 
block of stone, which " fell from heaven," stands in the 



212 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

far corner, and on it the impress of a hand is still plainly 
to be seen — the hand of the Empress Wu, the autocratic 
usurper of the Dragon Throne in the seventh century, 
who, calling herself divine, pretended that her super- 
natural powers had given her control even over the 
plants. Artificial forcing was resorted to by the court 
gardeners, and the flowers brought to her Imperial 
Highness at the critical moment. One day, alas, some 
recalcitrant peonies refused to respond ; orders were 
given that henceforth and for ever the cultivation of 
peonies should cease. 

The Empress Wu lived before her time. She ordained 
that men and women should have equal rights, and threw 
open examinations for official posts to the weaker sex. 
Whether the scheme proved a failure or too great a 
success is not clear. All we know is that it was promptly 
abolished by the next Emperor. 

The privileged occupants in these days of the Imperial 
City are sheep, not Manchu sheep, nor Chinese sheep, but 
Mohammedan sheep. 

" Ten Peking slippery ones cannot talk down one 
Tientsin brawler, ten Tientsin brawlers cannot talk 
down one Mohammedan," so goes the saying. A large 
and flourishing colony of this assertive race dwells in 
the north-west quarter of the city, the descendants, so 
they themselves declare, of some 3,000 Moslem soldiers 
who came to China during the eighth century at the 
request of the Emperor to propagate their religion ! In 
those days the Mohammedan Empire was enlarging her 
borders. Persia, India, Thibet, all in turn appealed to 
China for assistance against their Moslem invaders, but 
before long we hear of an Arab embassy knocking at her 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 213 

own doors and rumours of an Arab invasion, but, owing 
partly to Chinese diplomacy, and partly to the opportune 
death of the Arab general, no actual invasion took place, 
and those who crossed the border came in peace and not 
in war, and, marrying Chinese wives, they settled down 
for good. 

It is said that they " dwelt peaceably in China, 
tranquillising the state." 

In these days there is no love lost between the Moslems 
and the people of their adopted country. 

The aggressive, somewhat overbearing Mohammedan 
character irritates the more lethargic Chinese, and 
various sayings in common use show the opinion held by 
the latter with regard to their Moslem neighbours. 
" Ten Mohammedans, nine thieves," and " One Moham- 
medan travelling will grow fat, two on a journey will 
grow thin," meaning that when they think that none of 
their co-religionists are looking they will call pork 
" mutton " and eat it with enjoyment. 

Outwardly, however, the Chinese treat them with the 
respect which most of us would accord to a fierce-tempered 
watch-dog, and though they do not approve of Moslem 
sheep feeding gratis on " imperial " grass, interference is 
considered inadvisable, for it is best to let sleeping dogs lie. 

The Mohammedan quarter is an unattractive part of 
the city. Down one street and up another the unmade 
roads consist of deep drifts of dust in dry weather, and 
deep bogs of mud in wet weather, lined by walls to the 
right, walls to the left, endless mud-coloured walls, 
punctured by closed doors and innocent of windows, 
and now and again one catches sight of roofs of some 
more pretentious building which suggest a mosque. 



ti4 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Those whom we pass — they are invariably men and 
boys, for Moslem women are kept within doors more 
carefully than Chinese — wear peaked caps of white 
calico. Otherwise, except sometimes for the longer face 
and more developed nose, one could well have imagined 
them to be of pure Chinese ancestry. 

Into the largest and grandest of the eleven mosques, 
roofed with blue porcelain tiles shining in the sunlight 
and surrounded by fine courts and temple buildings, 
we sought admission. 

" We Chinese," said my escort, the Follower of Virtue, 
" may not enter into the Moslem worship halls. Neither 
is it allowed for women to go inside the buildings." But 
the Follower of Virtue was mistaken, or possibly an 
exception was made in favour of one of the outside 
kingdom folk who, at all events, were not " swine- 
eating idolaters." 

The day happened to be a Friday — the Moslem 
Sabbath — and voices in one of the side buildings were 
drowsing through passages of the Koran in Arabic, but 
the attraction of the crowd in the inner court centred 
round a long table littered with raw beef in gory masses, 
around which a number of men were hard at work slicing 
and chopping. Moslem priests in China derive part of 
their income from the slaughtering of animals, this 
unpleasant branch of a butcher's trade being a perquisite 
of the mullahs. Prices vary. One cash is charged for 
killing a chicken. Two hundred cash (about fivepence) 
for the slaughtering of an ox ! The " Follower of 
Virtue " remained outside the inner sanctum of the 
" Temple of Purity and Truth," but there was no 
objection to stockinged feet apparently, whether Moslem 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 215 

or otherwise, provided the defiling leather shoes were 
left on the doorstep. 

In all essentials Chinese mosques follow the ordinary- 
lines of Chinese architecture — pillared pavilions with 
sloping roofs and tip-tilted eaves. The " worship hall," 
with floors and pillars and panelled walls of wood 
painted in dark rich shades of colour, and empty of all 
furnishings and tawdry accessories save for an incense 
table near the entrance, possessed a dignity, an air of 
cleanliness and substantiality that one does not often find 
in Chinese temples. The floor was covered with strips 
of drugget, on which the worshippers gather at prayer 
time, taking care to keep their faces turned toward the 
west wall — and Mecca. The mirab, or prayer niche, 
occupies the centre of this west wall, facing the entrance 
and crowned by the Arabic inscription, " Allah the 
merciful and compassionate." In one corner of the 
sacred precincts a tiny "blind " door stands at the top, 
of a miniature flight of steps. This, the " Gate of 
Heaven," is another favourite spot for the devout. 
Prayer is " The Key of Paradise," but as to the five 
daily prayers required of all good Moslems : (1) at 
Adam's time (before daylight), (2) at Abraham's time 
(at noon), (3) at Jonah's time (at three), (4) at Jesus' 
time (at sunset), (5) at Mohammed's time (at 9 p.m.), 
those engaged in earning a livelihood excuse themselves 
from these regulations on the ground of pressure of 
business, and say that the priests will attend to these 
matters for them. 

Altogether, the Chinese Moslem takes life more easily 
than his co-religionists in other lands. 



216 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" Where is the bathing place ? " we asked, seeing no 
signs of any great marble tank in the open court like 
those in which the Indian Mohammedan performs his 
ritualistic ablutions. 

So shivering a proceeding does not appeal to a Chinese. 
He rejoices rather in the privacy and comfort of a bath- 
house in which steaming water in deep tanks sunk in the 
ground and heated by stoves in Japanese fashion, looks 
pleasantly inviting on a chilly spring morning. 

With regard to food, however, many who are slack in 
other ways are ultra-fastidious on this particular point. 
They cannot even defile their lips by using the word 
" pig," calling it by preference the " black animal," 
unless indeed they use it as a term of abuse when reviling 
their mules and horses. 

On one occasion we offered to one of our muleteers, a 
mere boy, an innocent English bun. He looked at it a 
little wistfully, but declined on religious grounds, fearing 
evidently that pork dripping had formed part of the 
recipe. 

Moslem women in China have not an enviable lot. 
Their happiness, or unhappiness, is of small moment to 
any one. They have no rights, no privileges, except in 
so far as they constitute useful chattels to their lords 
and masters, who guard them jealously from the eyes 
of others. 

Women cannot enter the " Gate of Heaven " ; women 
are not supposed to meddle with the " Key to Paradise," 
and if by any unlikely chance they should eventually be 
counted worthy of a better place than hell, there exists a 
little side heaven, a mere appendix to the real thing, 
which, according to Mahomet, is assigned for the use of 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 217 

truly saintly women after death. He admitted, how- 
ever, that only five — one of whom was the Virgin Mary — 
had ever attained thereunto ; whereas, on the one 
occasion when he was permitted to look down into hell, 
he discovered that nearly all the occupants of the 
infernal regions were — women ! 

The other day ( 1 9 1 4) the Mohammedans at a city in 
the province of Kansu attacked the leader of a new 
Moslem sect — a so-called " holy man " — who had not 
only committed the sin of using a Chinese translation of 
the Koran, but in many other ways had excited the 
wrath of some of his co-religionists. In a few short 
hours the members of the new sect were practically 
exterminated. The victors not only discovered a sub- 
stantial sum of money in the house of the " holy man," 
but nine tiny cells, measuring z\ feet by \\ feet, in each 
of which a young girl was kept under lock and key, save 
when required to appear in the presence of her master. 
There were nine of them, for Mahomet himself had nine 
wives, and the " holy man " had posed as being a second 
edition of the prophet. 

Some of the most precious possessions that Si An Fu 
has inherited from past ages are the black tombstones, 
in the famous " Forest of Tablets." A rickety gate 
leads from a bit of dusty no man's land behind the 
blood-red walls of the Confucian temple into a melancholy 
enclosure of back yards and stable sheds and shabby 
pavilions. Here, for nearly 1 ,000 years, these monuments 
of antiquity have stood in black dismal rows facing the 
dingy tumbledown walls in these long narrow barn-like 
buildings. 



2iS CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

It is a sad ending for the old-time worn tablets, which 
in the days of their youth, and many hundreds of years 
ago, stood out in the open sunlight in the grounds of the 
temples, doing duty as sundials. In no country but 
China would such valuable art treasures be so inade- 
quately housed. From time to time through the cen- 
turies fresh steles have been added to the collection, 
already so extensive that over 6,000 large sheets of 
paper would be necessary in order to get a rubbing of 
each inscription. 

Not only are the whole of the thirteen classics engraved 
in stone, but there are some fine drawings by famous 
artists, and amongst them the most approved portrait 
of Confucius, though, as the date of it is only a few 
hundred years back, it must to some degree be a fancy 
likeness. 

The artist has been careful to endow the great master 
— the " uncrowned king " — with the square jaw, the 
large, heavy-featured face and superabundance of 
adipose tissue, which, from the Chinese point of view, 
signifies the " superior man," and one whom the gods 
have blessed, for the " superior man " is as " free from 
care as the chrysanthemum," and a man who is free 
from care must of necessity be fat ! 

The latest addition to the " Forest " is the tablet 
of the " Illustrious Religion " — the famous Nestorian 
monument — dragon headed, tortoise crouching, but 
possessing an unmistakable Maltese cross. It had lain 
buried for many years (from the ninth century to the 
seventeenth), and only a comparatively short time ago 
was brought into the city from the grounds of a temple 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 219 

in the west suburb, and honoured by a place in the 
Forest of Tablets. 

" Olopun from the kingdom of 7 'a T. 'sin (Judea) on the 
Coral Sea, guiding himself by the azure clouds, carried 
with him the True Scriptures" so goes the inscription, 
and he arrived at Chang An, the present Si An, in 635 a.d. 

A description is given in classical Chinese of the process 
of creation, the fall of man, the coming of the Christ : — 
" A bright star announced the felicitous event. Persians 
saw its splendour and came with tribute . . . He threw 
open the gate of the three constant virtues, thereby bringing 
life to light and abolishing death. . . . His mighty work 
being thus completed, at noon-day He ascended to His true 
{place)" and so forth. The inscription is lengthy, and 
a part of it is in the Syriac script. Chinese scholars have 
always been full of admiration of the literary style, and 
in 1887 the authorities in Peking were persuaded to send 
a donation of 100 taels in order that measures should be 
taken for the better preservation of the tablet. It was, 
also, characteristic of things Chinese, that by the time 
the money had reached its destination, the 100 taels had 
dwindled into five ! 

There are few outward signs of the new era in 
Si An Fu. 

The general absence of the queue is one of the most 
noticeable. Crudely coloured pictures advertising pink 
pills or cigarettes, or some other much-sought-after 
foreign commodity, wayside stalls hung over with cheap 
and gaily-coloured foreign socks and foreign hats, 
numerous shops of cheap foreign oddments, from 
enamelled washing basins and oil-lamps to photograph 



2 2o CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

frames and looking-glasses, show that there must be an 
ever-increasing demand for these things. 

The " Follower of Virtue " pointed me out one of the 
grandest of these foreign emporiums. 

" What do they sell ? " I inquired, for the stock-in- 
trade looked more promising than usual. 

" Yao shenmo yu shenmo ! " literally " want what is 
what ! " or in clearer language, M Whatever you want, 
they have ! " 

So I essayed to buy some M loose tight braid " (elastic), 
but no ! Such a thing in Si An was " mai buh dao " (buy 
not arrive — or not to be bought). 

Well then — a reel of white cotton. 

They smilingly assented, and the larger part of the 
staff aided in the search. In triumph they brought back 
a dusty reel of black. 

" I want white," I said. 

" She wants white," joined in the crowd of idlers that 
invariably gathers round to take part in the transaction. 

Surely the mere colour was of no importance ; it was 
all they had ! 

" Never mind, I will send to Shanghai for it," I said. 

" Never mind. She will send to Shanghai for it," 
explained the crowd. 

But the " Follower of Virtue " had a better suggestion 
to make. 

" May we borrow your brightness," we said in polite 
Chinese phraseology, and the crowd moved aside for us 
to pass. 

There was truly a good foreign shop, said my escort, 
near the South Court Gate to which he could take me, 
where they actually had real foreign clothes to sell, and 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 221 

a foreign " leave behind sound machine " (gramophone) 
that was good to listen to. Surely a most up-to-date 
drapery store, for not only were there two life-sized 
waxed-faced models with green hair (for the dye had 
miscarried) of " outside kingdom folk " dressed in water- 
proofs and straw hats, and other " fashionable " articles 
of attire made in Germany, but the salesman had just 
received a new consignment of foreign goods from 
Shanghai — the Paris or Vienna of China — and seized the 
opportunity of the advent on the scene of a foreign 
customer, to inquire whether a pair of newly-arrived 
corsets should be worn outside the costume or inside. 

Shopping in Chinese shops of the old style presents 
difficulties to the uninitiated barbarian. Not only does 
the strange habit exist of offering the rubbish first and 
keeping the good things till the last, but it is somewhat 
disconcerting to go into some respectable store to choose 
a purchase only to find that there is nothing to choose 
from. Thus in the " City of the River Orchid " we went 
on one occasion to the confectioners to buy confectionery 
for some hundreds of New Year's guests, and, behold, 
nothing but singularly unsuggestive brown paper parcels 
lined the shelves of the shop. Being, however, impor- 
tant clients we were quickly ushered through into the 
guest hall at the back, and invited to drink tea. Fortu- 
nately Ba Giao Si, in giving her orders was able from past 
experience to describe the particular kinds of cakes and 
sweetmeats desired. Otherwise to have indicated the 
various brown paper parcels with a request for a pound 
of this, and a pound of that might have led to an unfortu- 
nate sameness in the results. The silversmith in Si An, 



222 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

whom the " Follower of Virtue " suggested for the pur- 
chase of enamel hair ornaments, gave even fewer out- 
ward and visible signs of his stock-in-trade. Whatever 
the " teacher mother " wished for could be made to order. 
Had they then nothing in stock ? They would look and 
see, and after a long delay and much hunting upstairs 
in the loft and downstairs in mysterious recesses, a few 
oddments were produced, such as silver hair-pins deco- 
rated with blue and green and yellow and purple 
enamelled bats and butterflies, and some silver bracelets 
of clumsy form. These with various alterations would at 
least serve for patterns. As to the price — that was un- 
certain — it would depend on the weight of the silver used. 

One convenient custom obtains amongst silversmiths 
of good repute. They must stamp the name of their firm 
on articles of their own making, holding themselves 
legally bound to buy them back again, whenever required 
to do so, according to the weight of the silver. 

To discover genuinely old curios is becoming increas- 
ingly difficult, as the curio seller is a past master in the art 
of imparting that look of unmistakable age so attractive 
in the eyes of the " outside kingdom barbarian." 

A " real " antique was offered to us the other day as a 
great bargain. Fortunately a connoisseur happened to 
be at hand. " This," he said, " is a newly-born piece of 
jade and of small value." 

Most of the fashionable foreign shops centre round 
and about an open space before the headquarters of the 
civil governor, and so densely packed with people and 
pedlars and peep-shows and paraphernalia of one kind 
and another, from the tables of the letter-writers and the 



THE CITY OF WESTERN PEACE 223 

fortune-tellers to the stands of the barbers and the corn 
cutters and the tooth pullers that it seems like some old- 
time country fair in a modern setting. New-time police- 
men, half smothered in khaki overcoats and military 
German caps, stand on the side walk, and the shops pride 
themselves on their up-to-date appearance with their 
large glass windows, their hanging American lamps, 
their Western stock-in-trade made partly in Germany, 
partly in Japan. In one of these " European " stores my 
umbrella was provided with a neat and trim extra cover 
for the sun, but alas ! they had not understood that my 
desire had been for a " living cover," i.e., one to take off 
and on. That which they had made was in their own 
picturesque language " dead." The Sons of Han, with 
characteristic contrariness, find euphemistic phrases such 
as " saluted the age " or " thanked the world " a con- 
venient subterfuge in order to avoid the use of the 
objectionable word " dead " in its ordinary connection. 
They have, however, a peculiar knack of introducing it 
on less suitable occasions. 

" What time is it ? " one inquires of a passing servant. 
" I do not know," comes the answer, " for the clock is 
dead," i.e., has stopped. 

Thus it is no surprise to be told that the blind alley 
leading out of the main thoroughfare is a " dead street " 
— a street without a head, and hence, it being already an 
unlucky spot, the outlet into the main street is used, or 
was used, until a very short time back, as the execution 
ground. That this, the still inevitable evil in a Chinese 
city, should occupy a part of the public highway is appa- 
rently of no consequence, for, after all, public highways, 
certainly in Si An, are put to many strange purposes. 



224 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

Carpenters saw their wood, weavers wind their silk, 
curio sellers spread forth their wares, cartwrights build 
their carts, barbers shave their customers, men bring 
out a " wash face basin " and perform their ablutions, 
dyers and paper makers hang out their stock-in-trade 
to dry, wherever there is sufficient space, be the road a 
busy thoroughfare or a side lane, and no one seemed at 
all surprised to see the way blocked one morning in a 
somewhat narrow street by a bran new swing which an 
eager crowd was taking it in turns to enjoy. True, they 
consented to stop for a moment or two and to pull the 
ropes on one side to let our carts go by. 

Bits of New China are breaking here and there through 
the crust of the Old. The telegraph, of course, is a familiar 
institution, and now the u lightning thread," for " light- 
ning words " (telephone) will soon enable the Du-Du 
(military governor), as the " Follower of Virtue " put it, 
to speak words at the Yamen which will be heard in his 
private " gang gwan " (residence) nearly two miles away. 
" Are such wonders," he asks, " known in Shanghai ? " 

A telephone seems, after all, an incongruous item in a 
city, that is still amply content to go on day after day 
with unmade roads and undrained houses, with un- 
cleansed streets and unminted silver, and no means of 
transport save that of springless carts and sedan chairs 
or litters slung between two mules. 




SONS OF NEW CHINA, IN CLOTHES LENT BY THE 
PHOTOGRAPHER. 




THE "NEW WOMAN OF CHINA, 
DRESSED LIKE A MAN. 




A DAUGHTER OF NEW CHINA, 

WITH TWO ARTIFICIAL DOGS, IN 

SUPPOSED IMITATION OF WESTERN 

FASHION. 



CHAPTER XVII 

In the Street of the Short Mile Gate 

In educational matters, however, there, are distinct 
signs of progress. Girls' schools are now the order of the 
day in the City of Western Peace. At certain hours, on 
all days except Sunday, which in Government institu- 
tions is now a holiday, a new figure may be seen in the 
streets walking sedately along with unbound feet, and 
quietly and becomingly dressed in a neat uniform of blue 
cotton cloth piped with white. Those who can afford the 
extravagance, add a cloth " costermonger " cap. These 
dainty young ladies are students at Government schools, 
and as such can pass along crowded highways with 
impunity. If they happen to meet a " Before Born " 
(teacher) they bow in the approved style bending over 
with stiffened arms and body as though they were made 
of wood, hinged at the waist. This is the new custom, 
but at the same time they adhere to the time-honoured 
rule that those who are saluting should gaze afar off, it 
being impolite to look each other in the face. 

Among some of the ladies of fashion one or two strange 
practices have, as they fondly suppose, been borrowed 
from the foreigner. 

The wife of one of the leading generals trotted past us 
on horseback the other day taking off her hat with a wide 
sweep to each in turn. This new fashion is gaining ground, 
despite the fact that in a list of sartorial rules, lately pub- 



226 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

lished, women are expressly advised to retain their head 
covering when saluting an acquaintance. 

A soft felt hat of a masculine type is much in favour, 
round the crown of which may be wrapped a broad white 
bandage if the wearer happens to be in mourning. Many, 
however, are still content to go without hats of any kind, 
and thanks to the use of bandoline (made from wood 
shavings), the hair looks as smooth as black satin and 
keeps tidy even in a boisterous wind. 

One misguided lady of rank, in her eagerness to follow 
the fashion, took to standing at her front door smoking a 
cigarette and dressed in the handsomest clothes she 
possessed. She admitted, however, that she disliked the 
publicity of the proceeding, and relieved to find that, after 
all, this was not the foreign custom amongst well-bred 
women, she retired in haste to the secluded inner apart- 
ments of the contemptible ones. 

There was a time, not so very long ago, when all women, 
of no matter how high a rank, made their own shoes, but 
now, in the craze for leather foot gear of foreign make, 
shops are to be found even in Si An where things of this 
kind can be purchased. Some few unbind their feet — 
this in Government schools is obligatory, but others 
merely pretend to have big feet and stuff the toes of the 
foreign shoe with paper, thrusting the tiny bound foot 
into the remaining space. English letters of the alphabet 
are a new and attractive form of ornament for the em- 
broidered home-made shoe. A certain number of letters 
are put together, as often as not without any meaning, 
which perhaps is just as well. One unsophisticated 
maiden had unawares sown the letters J.O.N. E.S. on 
her own dainty footgear. She could not tell one letter 



STREET OF THE SHORT MILE GATE 227 

from the other, but admired the artistic effect. In Si An 
amongst some of the advanced citizens there exists a 
" Heavenly Foot Society " — the aim of which is to 
abolish the " golden lilies " (small feet) for ever and a 
day. 

A month or so ago a petition was sent to Yuan Shi Kai 
asking that a fine should be imposed on any mother who 
still insisted on binding her daughter's feet, but whether 
the request was granted history does not relate. 

" The tongues of women increase by all they take from 
their feet," goes the old Chinese saying, but then the 
reference no doubt was to the " uneducated woman who 
stares at a wall." 

In Si An Fu, until the birth of the new era, and with 
the exception of pupils from the mission schools, women 
have had little chance of being anything else. 

The one real improvement under the Republic, how- 
ever, has been the genuine effort to promote education, 
but now that, too, is beginning to shrivel up like an over- 
forced plant. One is reminded of the days of Wang An 
Shih, the Reformer (more than 800 years ago), when even 
the pupils of the village schools threw away their text- 
books of rhetoric and began to study primers of history 
and geography, but, alas, less than ten years passed 
away, and all was as before. It was a case of " flowers in 
a mirror, of a moon in a stream." 

But this time there have been many Wangs at work, 
not only one. The inoculation with Western serum has 
been more thorough, the results more widespread, and 
things will never be again as they have been. One 
thinks of the snail that crept up the wall five feet every 
day and slipped back four every night, and though the 



228 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

sons and daughters of young China may not be immune 
from the old " disease," they will take it more lightly and 
in some case no doubt escape altogether. 

Amongst the many new words introduced of late years 
into the language, one that the genius of the language 
seems inclined to accept, signifies an ideal, but, alas, many 
of the would-be idealists lack either the strength of will 
or the pluck without which, according to the psycholo- 
gists, ideal aspirations are nothing worth. 

In the craze for quickly acquired accomplishments, 
Si An Fu girls' schools make a special feature of exceed- 
ingly elaborate, very laborious and (from a Chinese point 
of view) highly ornamental, crochet ! 

Marvellous tiger head bonnets for babies are con- 
structed with padded noses, prominent eyes, stuffed 
whiskers and so on, all complete, crocheted in many 
colours, the brighter the better. Thus a happy compro- 
mise is arrived at between things foreign and Chinese. 
Nothing can be more smart and fashionable in foreignised 
circles than some showy garment crocheted in Berlin 
wool, and that Baby should be adorned by a tiger's head 
is, as everybody knows, a sure preventive against evil 
influences. Whilst the children wear tiger shoes and 
tiger bonnets, their elders deck themselves out with 
crochet tippets and crochet frillings and crochet flowers 
— the latter pinned on as button-holes. 

Although the learned Chang Chih Tung * was hardly 
just to foreign instructors when he complained of their 
" slow methods," and said that " they did not exhaust 
the fountain of their knowledge, but dribbled it out to 

* Author of " China's Only Hope." 



STREET OF THE SHORT MILE GATE 229 

make it last longer," he admitted that there might be 
some who " were not averse to labour." 

His opinion is doubtless shared by many of his country- 
men, but even so, great is the desire in Si An Fu for a 
foreign teacher who will give instruction in the outside 
kingdom words, for is not a knowledge of this unin- 
telligible language " resembling the twittering of birds " 
the golden key in these days to many a fat billet ? 

The ancients in changing their residences did not seek 
for good houses but only for good neighbours, but times 
have changed ! The street of the " Short Mile Gate," 
in which my friend the teacher sister lives, is typical of 
democratic China — being a quaint medley of the man- 
sions of the great and the lowly habitations of the poor. 
The lordly residence of one of the leading generals stands 
opposite a slum, but a few steps removed from a row 
of small eating-houses and humble shops and, of all un- 
attractive places, one of the night haunts of the beggars. 
At one time a most ingenious scheme existed by which 
these poor street parasites were enabled to keep up a 
certain amount of warmth during the cold winter nights. 
Lying down on the ground, and forming a square, heads 
out, feet in, a species of tarpauline was let down on top 
of them, by means of pulleys, constituting a kind of 
counterpane shared by all. 

The teacher sister's house, wedged in between the 
general's mansion and a small paper shop, had been until 
recently inhabited by a " da ren " (great man). In 
China there is more give and take than in our Western 
lands. On fine days the paper maker spreads out his 
new sheets to dry in the porch and on the doorstep of the 
foreigner's house, that being larger and more convenient 



230 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

than those of his other neighbours. The slum children 
make garden seats of the ornamental stone work before 
the door, and^the general's riding horses are tied up to our 
gates. Any complaint would be considered most un- 
friendly and discourteous. Amongst the Chinese no one 
has any compunction even in asking for the loan of a 
garment and a refusal would be most unheard-of. The 
Westerners' objection to wearing other people's clothes 
would only be reckoned as one of our many marks of 
eccentricity. In a Nanking school a pupil was repri- 
manded for failing to announce her need of a tooth-brush. 
" Then all this time you have been doing without one ! " 
" No, indeed ! " came the unexpected reply, " I shared 
so-and-so's." 

In looking down the street of the " Short Mile Gate," 
over the mud holes and the mud heaps, one sees nothing 
of the really fine houses wedged in between the slums and 
the shops — nothing, that is to say, but a low wall and 
high gates with porches. 

Pass through the gates, however, of the house that was 
once the " da ren's " and you will come to a series of 
paved courts, one behind the other, surrounded by one- 
storied buildings, of doors painted a bright apple green 
flecked with patches of shining gold like so many gilded 
postage stamps, and in the centre of the main court a 
round porcelain tank for the goldfish. A shrine in honour 
of the earth god stands before the gatehouse, shaded by a 
cluster of bamboos, symbolic of peace, and the great doors 
of the guest hall at the upper end of the central court 
are richly ornamented by carved and painted panels 
representing peonies (for wealth), the lotus flower (for 



STREET OF THE SHORT MILE GATE 231 

purity), butterflies (for happiness), and the peach (for long 
life). 

The light filtering through the scarlet hangings before 
the doors and streaming through the soft paper panes of 
the casement windows gives a sense of subdued sunlight 
to those within — sunlight reflected in the shining brass 
on the black carved cupboards lining the walls. A 
painted frieze extends half across the centre of the hall 
between two massive wooden pillars. Who but a Chinese 
artist could have combined so successfully all the colours 
of the rainbow flung on in such broad, generous masses, 
and only he could have ignored all minor details with 
such artistic effect. 

The narrow court at the back of the guest hall is re- 
served for the well and the now empty shrine of the well 
god. Beyond that again come the secluded back courts 
which, in the days of the " da ren," were reserved for the 
" skirts and ornaments " (women). 

On the roof tops — significant of the fact that the " da 
ren " had possessed a literary degree — the " family bird," 
in other words the cock, carved in stone, stands out clear 
and sharp against the sky. The Chinese call him the 
bird of the five virtues. His comb (hat) shows that he 
is an " official," his spurs give him a right to be called a 
soldier. He " never flinches," hence every one allows 
that he is brave, his nature is sympathetic for he never 
omits to call the hens to share his food, and lastly, 
he is faithful in that he never fails to announce the 
dawn. 

Though all houses of any pretensions in Si An own wells, 
they are bitter wells, and most of the water for use is 



232 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

brought from the west gate of the city. Where the 
tangle of carts and mules and pedestrians emerge from 
the shadow of the tunnelled arch under the gate tower 
into the main street, the water carriers with their wheel- 
barrows and their buckets congregate, at all hours of the 
day, on the black slushy pavement round the famous 
sweet water wells. 

" Unless foolish and deaf, it is difficult to be the head 
of a household," runs the old-time saying in China, the 
idea being that one must shut one's eyes to much that 
goes on. 

There are only seven things necessary in housekeeping, 
so they say : — fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy, tea, and vinegar, 
but in the foreign household it is a case of seventy times 
seven, and the principal item is soap, which comes all 
the way from Western lands and is one of the most prized 
of outside kingdom produce even here in this northern 
city which, according to one French writer, is the 
" dirtiest city in the world." It is still, however, an ex- 
pensive luxury and rather beyond the purse of the man 
in the street, and even when bought, or possibly presented 
as a New Year's gift by the foreign, teacher is con- 
sidered too good to use except on state occasions. Fortu- 
nately for native laundry work there is a kind of bean 
which makes a good lather and will wash clothes. 
But in the foreigner's household there is, of course, soap 
to be had in abundance, of many varieties, and the 
servants sometimes put it to strange uses. A muddy pair 
of winter boots sent out to be cleaned are discovered, half 
an hour later, reposing comfortably in a lather of soap in 
the very pan in which the family bread had just been 
kneaded into shape ! 



STREET OF THE SHORT MILE GATE 233 

Chinese servants do not find it easy at first to get into 
our ways, but once " in " they have the merit of never 
getting out of them again. In the house of a friend a new- 
table boy was seen to be washing the plates with saliva, 
but drying them carefully afterwards ! I forget if it was 
that boy or another who, on being told to wait at table, 
thought it impolite to watch the guests eating, so secreted 
himself under the table until the moment came in which 
to remove the plates. 

The difference between the Eastern and Western point 
of view often leads to misunderstandings. 

A servant reprimanded on one occasion for dis- 
obedience could not understand his master's wrath. 
" Why is it so important ? " he said. " How many 
dollars did you lose over the matter ? " 

" None at all, it was not a question of money." 

" Well then ? " 

" Thou shalt not steal — money " is a commandment 
well understood, but to take food from one's master's 
kitchen, or to gather fruit from his trees, or to borrow his 
things in perpetuity, or annex something, that does not 
mean financial loss to the owner is not, as a rule, 
reckoned as an actual theft. 

" If you mistrust a man do not employ him ; if you 
employ a man do not mistrust him," says Confucius, and 
the only way to domestic peace is to pretend sometimes 
to be both deaf and foolish, and ever and always to steer 
a happy middle course between severity and leniency. 

Our house woman in the " City of the River Orchid," 
on hearing someone complain of the ingratitude of a fellow 
servant made (for a Chinese) a curiously direct statement : 
" That is always the way with us Chinese," she said. 



234 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" If you treat us well we treat you badly, if you treat us 
badly we treat you well ! " Fortunately, however, as 
most of us know, this is only a part of a truth, considerably 
outweighed by all that might be said in favour of the 
Chinese servant, either trained or untrained. 

An undisputable household requisite in far inland pro- 
vinces is the large and bulky pair of scales for the weigh- 
ing of silver. The " silver shoes " weigh some fifty ounces 
of silver or more. The broken pieces may vary from a few 
cents in value to a few dollars, but though a parcel of 
silver is inconveniently heavy, the ten cash copper coins 
for daily use, which are sent back from a money shop in 
exchange for the silver, are almost as much trouble to 
carry about as a sack of coals. 

It is true that there are paper notes worth from one to 
two shillings, but they are issued by the local Government, 
and may any day be reckoned as so much waste paper. 

Small silver coins of 10 or 20 cents or even Mexican 
dollars cannot be used in Shensi. In Kiangsi, on the 
contrary, dollars were in favour, but not always the same 
kind of dollar. In one city the old " Dragon Coin " would 
pass ; in the next the people preferred the Eagle, and at 
last we arrived at a town where both the Eagle and the 
Dragon had been superseded by an inferior coin " made 
in Japan." In Nanchang, the capital, paper notes were 
in favour — paper notes for as small a sum as 10 cents 
(about 2|<i.), which a day's journey off were practically 
worthless. One rule, and only one, holds good all over 
the land, and that is, that, whenever the money of one 
place is exchanged for that of another, the owner loses 
in the transaction. 



STREET OF THE SHORT MILE GATE 235 

Small wonder that the Chinese financiers are for ever 
postponing the much-talked-of " reform of currency." 
There was a time, so the histories tell us, when actually 
a gold coinage existed in China, and people " possessed 
the liberty of coining money for themselves." When 
one remembers the deluge of paper notes during the first 
years of the Republic issued by all sorts and conditions 
of men, one could almost imagine oneself back in those 
" good old days " ; but in that golden age (b.c. 179) an 
Emperor occupied the throne of China so greatly in 
advance of his time that he not only introduced old age 
pensions for all over eighty, but added an extra luxury 
in the case of those over ninety in the shape of " sufficient 
silk for a gown." * How have the mighty fallen ? It is 
doubtful, too, whether the octogenarians of the Middle 
Kingdom continued to enjoy state assistance for many 
years, as during the reign of their benefactor's successor 
we read that national finances became distinctly strained, 
and to relieve the situation the Emperor bethought him 
of an ingenious plan by which to collect funds. The white 
deer in the royal parks were killed, and the skins were 
richly embroidered and sold to the officials, who were 
compelled to buy them at fictitious prices, and this we 
imagine to be the first fancy bazaar on record. 

* " Imperial History of China," Rev. J. MacGowan. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

The Pepper Month 

Though in theory China now recognises January 1st as 
New Year's Day, she keeps all her celebrations for the 
" Go Nien " of the old calendar, which this year happens 
to fall on January 26th. The " Pepper Month " being 
the last month of the year is a busy time here as else- 
where. The chief business of the day is to get in all the 
money you have lent, and to pay back as little as possible 
of that which you have borrowed. Only here, in this land 
of contradictions, does one find so many people in a 
chronic state of being both debtors and creditors. Cooks, 
charwomen, gardeners, and those whom one thinks are 
living from " hand to mouth " have, most of them, a 
small sum of money lent out which may or may not 
ever be repaid. Yet all the time they are probably 
weighed down by debt. 

Money or no money, everybody buys fresh mottoes in 
gay coloured paper for the street doors. Such sayings as 
"Though there are many books I have not read" (i.e., 
though my learning is not great) " may my deeds call 
forth no reproach," is the laudable inscription on one of 
the humblest doors. 

Possibly new lanterns as well as new mottoes will be 
purchased, and the portraits of the two famous door gods 
to protect the house from evil, to say nothing of the 
perforated paper hung above the lintel for luck. 



THE PEPPER MONTH 237 

On New Year's Eve one can hear the tap tap, chop 
chop sounds in all directions and the monotonous sea- 
saw-like pounding of the " wind box " (bellows) under the 
stove, for rich and poor alike are preparing for the great 
feast of the " Three Beginnings " (the year, the month, 
and the day), and in Chinese cooking, meat, fish, vege- 
tables, no matter what, must be chopped into small 
pieces before appearing at table. 

As the last month of the year is called the " Pepper 
Month" (from a similarity between the character 
"lah" — "last" and "lah" meaning "red pepper"), so 
New Year congratulations rejoice in the unsuggestive 
title of " pepper flowers." 

" To-day," wrote a Chinese woman who lived many 
years ago, " everybody dips the brush into the ink to 
write the words ' happiness, wealth and felicity/ If I 
might give wise advice to the ambitious it is to bear the 
life that is laid upon them, and not to ask for things which 
Providence cannot possibly accord to all." 

But such philosophy would be beyond most of her 
countrywomen, whose horizon is still bounded by the 
words — " lucky and unlucky." The old superstitions are 
hard to shake off, and one cautious old lady who had 
heard something of the Christian doctrine and who, 
moreover, was the proud possessor of a hymn book, 
turned over the pages hoping to get some advice with 
reference to her intended house moving. She had not to 
search for long before she came to the words : " Sunday 
the best of days " — evidently this must mean the 
most lucky of days. Hence she gave her orders accord- 
ingly ! 

Some anxious souls, desirous of putting off as long as 



238 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

possible the " saluting of the age " (death) stow money 
under the mattress on New Year's Eve which helps, so it 
is said, to prolong one's life. One man, of a practical turn 
of mind, made a bonfire of his shoes. " They have brought 
me nothing but ill luck," he said, " through the whole of 
the past years. It were foolish indeed to allow them to 
exert their evil influence any longer ! " 

" All good things are three," say the Germans, but in 
China " all good things are two." In sending gifts, 
whether at the New Year or at any other time, one must 
be especially careful to send an even number — two, four, 
or if one is particularly generously inclined, six. Should 
the gift, however, be in return for one received, the num- 
ber of articles should be the same in both cases, and as red 
paper wrappings are not always available, a strip of 
red on a brown paper package will answer all require- 
ments, and finally they are placed on a handsome tray 
which, however, the bearer will bring back with a small 
sum of " tray money " for his personal benefit, for any one 
but a servant to carry parcels through the street is con- 
trary to etiquette — which, however, is not rigorously 
followed in the case of books, but even a book must be 
wrapped in paper or a cloth ; the latter, moreover, is con- 
sidered more " timien " (smarter) than paper. 

A broad red sheet on which a long list of names had 
been inscribed was brought in the other day by the 
" Follower of Virtue." It turned out to be an invitation 
to " drink spring wine " at one of the great houses of the 
city. 

The answer was easily achieved. It consisted merely 
of writing the character " djih " meaning " know " 



THE PEPPER MONTH 239 

jotted against one's name — a slightly brusque method 
from a Western point of view, but evidently amply 
sufficient. 

On the day of the feast, the invitation was repeated. 
To omit this " second time of asking " would be a mark 
of incivility. Without it in fact one might almost con- 
sider the engagement cancelled. 

Mr. Wang, our host, prided himself on his intimate 
knowledge of the queer manners and customs of " outside 
kingdom folk." Besides, in these republican days, it 
was thought distinctly smart to do things in foreign 
style. 

They had not got to the point, however, of allowing 
men and women to dine together. Therefore in one of the 
ante-chambers came the parting of the ways, and we the 
" skirts and ornaments " followed our guide into one of 
the inner rooms of Mr. Wang's " jade-like wife " — a 
mother of five children, but as girlish in appearance as a 
maiden of eighteen, with the small eyes " limpid as water 
in autumn " that are considered beautiful in China, and a 
thin delicate nose. 

The last of the five children being a girl, the mother had 
made a present of her to a neighbour with no more ado 
than we should make in offering some one a geranium 
cutting. 

Little Mrs. Wang, being nothing if not fashionable, 
wore a costume, resembling in all essentials that of a 
man, with a long straight gown of soft blue brocade 
hiding her trousers, and a sleeveless jacket of rich purple. 
An embroidered silk cloth dangled from her waist. It 
had been presented to her for the tea table, but she 
evidently preferred to use it as a pocket handkerchief. 



240 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The reception room was a bedroom, though the stately 
four-post bed at one end, draped with creamy white 
curtains, constituted the only actual piece of bedroom 
furniture. In correct Chinese style we sat in stiff rows 
with our backs against the wall and mostly in silence. 
Small talk about the weather is not as useful a resource 
in China as in some countries. " Do you think it will 
rain to-day," an English girl on one occasion inquired of 
a stern Confucianist, but answer came there none. Think- 
ing he had not heard, she repeated the question, at 
which he replied with some annoyance, " How can I 
know the affairs of Heaven ? " Politics in these dangerous 
times must be studiously avoided, books and travel they 
know nothing about, and conversation in the inner 
apartments is circumscribed in the extreme. The room 
itself was somewhat bare and unsuggestive. Here and 
there pressed up against the wall stood a dwarf tree, 
twisted into fantastic shape and displaying a wealth of 
lovely shell pink blossoms. Otherwise, save for our 
hostess and her friends in their long masculine gowns of 
delicate silvery blue and violet brocade, the room was 
void of decoration. In the adjoining dining hall, which 
we entered by order of teeth (seniority) curtained beds 
and dwarf trees were no more, and efforts had been made 
to create a truly European atmosphere. The last new 
importation in American lamps hung from the ceiling, 
the long narrow table was adorned by calico tablecloths, 
and at regular intervals trumpery English vases of 
bright blue and pink glass alternated with lodging-house 
cruets, the " jars of the seven stars," as the Chinese call 
them. The vases were innocent of flowers, this trifling 
accessory being apparently deemed superfluous. Calico 



THE PEPPER MONTH 241 

pocket handkerchiefs represented the serviettes, and a 
small plate beside each guest was already occupied by 
several pieces of real foreign bread, excellently made, 
and a large hunk of sponge cake. Hot wine in pewter 
pots in Chinese style was poured into wine glasses in 
foreign style, and every guest was carefully supplied with 
a knife, fork and spoon, though the latter were only made 
of tin, a poor exchange for the elegant, ivory chopsticks 
of former days, and to our hostess peculiarly awkward 
implements to manipulate. She welcomed the dishes of 
sea slugs and other soft dainties which needed no cutting. 
" This you can bite, is it not so ? " she said to me once 
as some of these succulent morsels were placed before us. 
She was not alluding of course to any dental incapacity 
on my part, but rather to her own relief in being able to 
dispense with the objectionable knife and fork. " Truly," 
said the guests, " you have wasted your time on our 
behalf," as plates heaped high with all the delicacies of 
the season were placed before us, and the courses followed 
each other in appalling numbers. " Better be rude to 
your guests than starve them," is the approved maxim, 
and even the dessert (a concession to foreign ideas in any 
case) was almost a meal in itself. Before each guest a 
plate laden with sliced pears, peeled oranges, sponge 
cakes, nuts, and I know not what else besides, was placed 
as a final bon-bouche. 

On the whole, the entertainment did its donors much 
credit, for object lessons in the queer ways of outside 
kingdom folk must have been few and far between, 
yet no essential detail had been overlooked. 

At the end of a dinner party it is usual for each guest 
to leave " golden sand " (a substantial tip) for the 



242 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

servants. Mr. Wang, however, seemed aware that this 
was not a foreign custom, therefore, by means of the 
indispensable middleman, we were particularly requested 
to follow our own rules of etiquette. 

A fashionable entertainment in these strange times 
aspires to be as " Western " as possible. A contrast this 
to the days when the Emperor in writing to Queen 
Victoria spoke of her people as " savages of the further 
seas " who were commanded to " submit humbly to the 
Celestial Empire " or otherwise he threatened to " pound 
them into mincemeat. " 

In the street of the " Short Mile Gate " other " Pepper 
Month " festivities were in progress, and the teacher sister 
had invited the wives of all the city members of the 
" Save the World " Mission to a feast. The question was 
how many feasts would suffice. 

If in China you desire to invite thirteen or fourteen 
guests, you must provide for twenty-four. Should your 
numbers exceed twenty-four even by a solitary one, you 
must provide for thirty-six, and so on up the scale, the 
method in this madness being that one feast is sufficient 
for twelve people, but, as it is not possible to order half a 
feast or a quarter of a feast there is only one way out of 
the difficulty which is to make it two feasts or three 
feasts or more as the needs may suggest. 

Hence for our thirty-nine to forty guests the order 
given to the " fan-dien " (restaurant) was for four feasts for 
forty-eight people. Unluckily the weather had turned 
wet and cold. The " hurried rain " as the Chinese call it, 
had changed to goose feathers (snow), keeping some of our 
guests away. 



THE PEPPER MONTH 243 

The master of the " fan-dicn " saw his opportunity. 
He would send enough food for twenty-four and hope 
that the " stupid foreigners " would not notice the some- 
what short supplies and the guests naturally would be too 
polite to mention the matter. He had, however, 
" counted without his host," and the teacher sister 
was too well versed in the ways of the " mai mai ren " not 
to perceive that the dishes or rather the basins grew 
smaller as the meal progressed. Diplomatically she 
referred the matter to the middleman. There followed 
the uneasy laugh peculiar to all circumstances of a similar 
nature in China, and all went well to the end of the meal 
and the appearance on the scenes of the " false vege- 
tables." This name is given to the last course not from 
any discourtesy to the vegetables, but merely to signify 
that they are not intended to be eaten. No well-bred 
person will ever think of transgressing on this point, it 
being an understood rule that by this time everybody 
has had ample sufficiency. In Kiangsi, and possibly in 
other parts of China, a fish answers the same purpose, as 
the word " yu " meaning "fish," has the same sound as 
" yu," meaning " sufficient," though, of course, the 
written character is by no means the same. 

Fortunately the snowflowers did not long remain upon 
the ground, but the weather was raw and cold, and those 
who came and went must have looked with envy at the 
glowing coal in the guest halls of the outside kingdom 
folk, for the only fuel that the majority could afford 
was a cheap mixture of mud and manure which smoul- 
dered odoriferously under the brick beds, and for the 
"wind stove," a few handfuls of charcoal. Coal, though 
only about two cash a pound at the pits in the next 



244 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

province of Shcnsi, is $os. a ton by the time it reaches Si 
An Fu, owing entirely to the difficulty of transport. In the 
olden days a certain Empress of China thought out an 
original plan for heating the palace apartments and had 
the walls of her rooms " smeared with pepper to generate 
warmth." 

During the first days of the New Year the streets are 
gay with the new flower lamps, of every shape and size, in 
the form of birds and beasts and flowers, wonderfully and 
beautifully made — from long-legged cranes, popularly 
supposed to be the horses of the gods and symbolic more- 
over of longevity, to the rose-tinted butterflies significant 
of happiness. 

On the sixth of the first moon the time-honoured 
custom is still observed of presenting lanterns to one's 
friends and nearly every passer-by is carrying a " flower 
lamp." 

The shops on the festive days are all closed, and the 
dark stained wood of the doors and shutters streaked and 
splashed with the scarlet and orange and geranium red 
of the New Year scrolls. 

On the night of the fifteenth, pleasure-seekers turn out 
to see the sights — the men mostly on foot, the ladies in 
covered carts carefully concealed from view. There are 
many novel designs — moving doves and tiny dancing 
figures worked by some ingenious apparatus inside the 
glowing balls of light, but the greatest crowd pressed 
round the last new toy from the outside kingdom — 
an acetylene gas lamp. 

These are gay days for the city god, who sits on his 
throne in the " Temple of the City Moat " at the end of a 




Pv>" ^'^ 



*UN 






a9 



A CITY TEMPI E 



THE PEPPER MONTH 245 

narrow paved lane of gaudy little shops which still remain 
open, for their stock-in-trade consists chiefly of the 
necessaries for idol worship and cheap toys for the chil- 
dren — writhing snakes made of wire and bamboo, paper 
swords and tiny monkeys concocted of mud and rag and 
bits of fur, which, at the instigation of a piece of thread, 
pop a mask over their own faces, clever toys most of 
them, and a farthing a piece at the outside. 

In the courts around the temple the sightseers come 
and go amongst the pedlars and the sweet sellers, and all 
is bright and festive, but one step further takes us across 
the threshold of the god's private domain and into 
another world. 

The air is so thick with the smoke of the candles and the 
smouldering incense that the image of " His Excellency " 
in the background is hardly visible. Much homage is 
offered to him in these reactionary days, and many dainty 
dishes are placed before his shrine, for does he not reign 
supreme over that other more mysterious Si An Fu in the 
Shadow World. What do they pray for these supplicants 
who kneel for a few brief moments before the altar ? 
With the majority, the chief object seems to be to consult 
the oracle, and shaking out a slip of wood from a bundle 
given by the priest they exchange it for a strip of paper, 
from which, if they are clever in these matters, they will 
read some prophetic utterance with reference to the 
future. 

There are three things, all of which, so goes the saying, 
no one man can ever obtain in spite of all the prayers in 
the world — a son, wealth, and whiskers ! 

The great man of the city in these days is the Du-Du 
(military governor of the province). Now and again we 



246 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

pass him squatting on the floor of his springless cart, sur- 
rounded by a mounted mob — in other words — his body- 
guard. They are in uniform certainly and some of them 
are armed, but the shaggy ponies choose their own pace, 
usually a slow one, and their riders sit as they please. 
The Du-Du is a man of parts, say those who know, and in 
democratic China, it matters not a jot that he began life 
in the blacksmith's shop round the corner, his father's 
property. The family, instead of being ashamed of the 
connection, is on the contrary so sensible in matters 
of the kind, that the great man's relatives still continue to 
carry on the business despite the proximity of the forge 
to the palace. Is there any country in the world except 
China in which a prominent statesman will tell you 
without even a feeling of regret that his aunt is a char- 
woman, and his uncle a cook. 

In the " City of the River Orchid " the younger 
brother of one of the influential families of the place had 
joined the ranks of the " Flowery Ones " (beggars). 
We came across him one day going round for the regular 
dole of cash, the monthly tax paid on the first and the 
fifteenth which the beggars levy on the shopkeepers, and 
which, the shopkeepers, most of them, are ready to pay for 
the sake of peace. The man's family apaprently fully 
acquiesced in the arrangement realising the fact that he 
would never be anything but a " ne'er do weel." 

The Du-Du's relations, however, were no beggars, but 
prosperous blacksmiths, and he himself, the clever boy of 
the family, had been educated, well and thoroughly, first 
in China and later on for five years in Japan. He had 
proved his worth in the stormy days of the Revolu- 
tion, had ascended the cloud-ladder (been promoted) and 



THE PEPPER MONTH 247 

possessed without doubt a " fragrant name " (good 
reputation). 

The " Follower of Virtue " one day in the festive New 
Year season brought in word that this was the Du-Du's 
birthday, and if the teacher mother wished, he would 
escort her to see the presents that the great man had 
received. They were on view apparently in the open 
street ! 

Who would be a Du-Du with a birthday ? 

All around the doors and walls of his private residence 
a rowdy " Hampstead Heath " fair had established itself 
in honour of the festive occasion. A theatre stage had 
been erected high above the heads of the crowd — less 
pretentious peep-shows cropped up here and there, the 
" buyers of mirth " had congregated in force, the clamour 
of voices, the beating of gongs, the cries of the pedlars 
hawking their wares, the high shrill tones of the children 
must have effectually sapped all peace and quiet from the 
Du-Du's residence — in honour of the day. 

Ranged along the street against the walls of his house 
were the birthday presents — consisting for the most part 
of gigantic umbrellas of red silk spread open for all men 
to see, and inscribed with the names of the donors in 
gilded characters. " The umbrellas of 10,000 people," as 
they are called. 

Red umbrellas and the congratulations of 10,000 
people to-day ! And to-morrow ? Who knows ? A 
summons possibly to Peking — " Whence no footsteps 
return," for it is whispered abroad that the days of all 
Du-Du's are numbered. 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Contemptible One 

" The Phoenixes in concord sing " is a well-known 
wedding air, but alas, like much else in China, words 
stand for the real thing, and family life is peculiarly 
lacking in concord. 

A young Chinese friend of mine, who has studied in 
Japan and travelled in Europe, and lived for a time in 
England, considers it would be a great step in the right 
direction if the bridal pair were permitted to start house- 
keeping on their own account. " In this street," she said 
(a street in one of the most fashionable quarters of a 
large city), " there are many families with whom I am 
acquainted and in not one household is there any peace 
or happiness. The sisters-in-law, the mother-in-law, the 
big wives and the little wives quarrel from morning till 
night ! " 

Needless to say, our little friend and her husband were 
running their own menage on Western lines. 

No wonder the poor denizens of the inner apartments 
quarrelled ! Their lack of education, of course, had a good 
deal to answer for. One recoils from the thought of those 
long, empty hours in the secluded courts usually con- 
signed to the " contemptible ones." For many, the most 
absorbing occupation of the day is probably the hair- 
dressing and the face powdering. The former is a lengthy 
business. The wealthy, of course, have their maids and 



THE CONTEMPTIBLE ONE 249 

their slave girls to wait upon them, but where there are 
no attendants to fall back on, each one will lend a hand 
to her neighbour. Thus in a girls' school it is no uncommon 
sight to see a long row of school girls, one sitting behind 
the other, each with her combs and her bandoline, her 
flowers and her coloured braid, dressing with great care 
and precision her friend's glossy black tresses, while at 
the same time her own locks are being brushed and 
twisted into place. In these days either the Japanese 
style of coiffure is in favour, or the most unbecoming 
fashion of the Ming dynasty of nearly 300 years ago, 
which necessitates the cutting of two straight strands of 
hair to fall like black ribbons over the cheek bones. 

" If one have plenty of money but no children, one 
cannot be reckoned rich. If one has children but no 
money, one cannot be considered poor " — so goes the 
common saying in China, and families that are well to do, 
increase sometimes by leaps and bounds unknown in 
Western lands. The other day in this city of Si An Fu 
each of the three wives of a certain wealthy citizen pre- 
sented their lord and master with three baby daughters. 
It was unfortunate that every child born in the house 
that month should have belonged to the despised sex, but 
with funds at their disposal the three wives could soon 
make up for the disappointment and without more ado, 
each in turn adopted a baby boy, thereby enlarging the 
nursery population by six small children in as many weeks. 
To adopt a child, whether one has children of one's own 
or not, is a curiously prevalent custom in all parts of the 
land, and that not only amongst the rich but amongst 
the comparatively poor. Different plans are resorted 



150 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

to by different people and "light of the Moon," 
mi I came across not long ago at a Chinese- 
A--' . school, could have told a dismal 

story of her experiences, which doubtless are common 
enough if one only knew. In her native town a 
marriage had been arranged for her by her p; and 

the usual " go between," with a youth whose th 
wealthy uncles, be ns> childless and getting on in vears, 
had desired above all things male heirs to carry on the 
ancestral worship. They had, therefore, supplied all 
necessary funds for the nephew's marriage r. 

that all male offspring should belong not to 
the father or the mother, but to the three old men who 
had financed the nephew and purchased the vt 

But year after year passed on, and no " pearl of the. 
pah". " (son) was vouchsafed to '* Light of the Moon." 
Hence, the contract was considered at an end. She was 
given leave to return to her father's home, but as no one 
wanted her there, she had drifted by a happy chance into 
the teacher sister's school and would before long be able 
to earn her own living. 

By many it is not considered " respectable to drink 
the tea of two families," **#., to marry again, and in this 
land, where the majority of women are born into the world 
to M suffer and obey." there are many lonely souls whose 
husbands are either dead or have cast them off like M a 
fan in autumn." It is a melancholy life to sit " opposite 
one's own shadow," as the Chinese put it, drawing near 
the wood (death) knowing — oh, the bitterness of the 
thought — that when they get to the next world, there 
will be no son or grandson to worship at the grave and 
provide one with the necessaries not of life, but oi death. 



THE CONTEMPTIBLE ONE 251 

one cares if she goes or stays, though gome come 
to her BOW and again for advice, for as the Ch ese say, 
" it is well to '/)•]'■■ heed to the voice of an old woman for 

sorrow has given her wisdom." 

Pol the " contemptible one/ 1 however, whom marriage 

has presented with "golden joys" (sons), the day will 

. rovided she herself is not deficient in strength of 

character, when she, even she, will turn into one of the 

.'■ important personages in the bouse. 

" Man proposes, woman disposes/ 1 say some, alluding 
without doubt to those masterful rnothers-in-iaw, many 
of whom are women of dignity of character and much 
intelligence. One cannot but realise what a power for 
good they might be in the land, given more careful train- 
ing and a less superficial education in the days of their 
youth, for as one so often hears it said, no country rises 
above the level of its women. 

" The woman is as earth to receive, man is as heaven to 
give." 

" The newly-rnarried wife should be but a shadow and 
echo in the house," goes the Confucian maxim, but the 
newly-married wife in modern days likes to have her 
say in most matters, and it is often no longer a case of 
" swallows twittering " (women chatting) but of paro- 
quets screeching. 

Now and again, but rarely, the u Phoenixes in concord 
sing " and the wedded pair live together like " fish in 
water." I remember such a case in a northern city, but, 
alas, it was short-lived. The husband, a professor at the 
university was receiving a substantial yearly income, and 



252 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

was, moreover, the proud father of four charming children . 
His earlier life in the south, before his marriage to his 
dainty little northern wife with eyebrows like " the 
silhouettes of distant mountains " and the prettiest 
wine hollows (dimples) imaginable, had not been blessed 
by the god of wealth. 

The little wife, however, was content not to inquire 
into details. Picture, therefore, the overwhelming grief 
which burst upon her like a " clap of thunder from a clear 
sky " when, one fine day, the senior wife (and according 
to Chinese law the only real wife) appeared on the scenes. 
Up till now, her very existence had been kept a secret 
from her successor. Wife, number one, having never 
possessed any children of her own, appropriated the four 
little ones that had been born to her rival. This, of 
course, was her legal right, and the secondary wife 
became practically a nonentity in the very house in 
which, up till now, all innocently and unsuspectingly, she 
had reigned as mistress. 

On the day of our visit — I remember it well — a faint 
smile of joy had come back to her sad little face and in her 
arms she held her youngest child. It had fallen ill it 
seemed, and the senior wife took no interest in sick chil- 
dren, therefore, its own mother might have it back again 
and welcome ! 

Now and then in these modern days girls try to 
manage their matrimonial affairs for themselves, and 
without going to the length of advertising in the paper, 
like the advanced young lady already mentioned, a 
maiden of independent spirit in the " City of the River 
Orchid " decided to have nothing to do with the man 
whom her father, the " severe one," and the " go- 



THE CONTEMPTIBLE ONE 253 

between," had. selected for her husband. Therefore she 
cut off all her hair and appeared in public in masculine 
garb. Her wish was fulfilled, but alas, the matter did not 
rest there — time has gone on and no Phcenix guest 
(bachelor) either in the city or out of it has ever desired 
to have her as his " stupid thorn " (wife). Whether she 
finally took to vegetarianism in the hope of returning to 
life at her next birth in the shape of a man I do not 
know. She continues to live in her father's house, laughed 
at by all for the one escapade of her youth. 

In Si An Fu there were few wealthy homes in which one 
wife reigned, supreme. I remember a handsome guest 
hall in the house of an ex-official where the elegant lounge 
and all the chairs were upholstered in fur, and in which 
the wives clustered round the " outside kingdom guests " 
like a swarm of bees. Only one amongst them all could 
read any Chinese characters, and that one, who by the 
way, led most of the conversation, turned out to be, not 
a wife at all, but a slave girl — a bright, handsome maiden, 
who had, so she said, been a patient once in the " Save 
the World " hospital, and had there learnt to read a few 
words. Of the poor uneducated wives there were the 
" contemptible ones " of the ex-official, and the others 
were mostly the wives of his brothers who, in approved 
Chinese style, all lived under one roof. 

" Several generations in a house is a mark of Heaven's 
favour." We called one day on the senior wife of a neigh- 
bour — a military official. She had not " invited our jade 
toes to benignly approach." Therefore it was possible 
that she might request us " not to stop the wheels of our 
chariot." The old serving-woman, who accompanied us, 
dividing the offices of chaperone and attendant, was sent 



254 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

in to find out her ladyship's pleasure, and soon returned 
inviting us to enter. The outer courts, coolly shaded and 
damp and green with palms and other pot plants, would 
have been attractive on a hot day were it not for the 
presence of unsavoury oddments, more fitted for house- 
maids' cupboards or bathrooms, which cropped up in 
unexpected places. The house itself presented the usual 
lack of upkeep — from the peeling paint on the doors to 
the torn paper panes of the windows — but officials are 
here to-day and gone to-morrow, and who would be 
stupid enough to plant a willow in order that one's suc- 
cessor may enjoy its shade. 

The " big wife " lived at the end of the court in the 
most honourable of all the inner apartments. She 
received us exceedingly graciously in her bedroom, seat- 
ing herself on the bed hung with pale blue silk curtains, 
whilst to her guests were assigned the seats of honour at 
either side of the table. Table cloths of glazed calico, 
highly coloured and beflowered, represented the last new 
treasures from abroad, and cheap photographs of her 
relations hanging crookedly on the walls, looked strangely 
vulgar and out of keeping by the side of some dignified 
scrolls, the drawings of which were embroidered in delicate 
old shades of silk. Some writers praise the Chinese for 
their neatness. A well-dressed Chinese is probably the 
neatest being in the world, and in their writing, their 
drawing, their surgical work, and in many other ways 
they possess that " neat touch " which many of us sigh 
for in vain. Whence then comes this lack of disorder in 
their houses so often remarked upon ? Greatly, perhaps, 
because they are " pickers up of unconsidered trifles " 
and are ever loth to throw anything away. Therefore, 



THE CONTEMPTIBLE ONE 255 

as space is often limited, many unsightly objects are 
piled up on tables provided for other uses, or pushed into 
corners not out of sight but out of mind. Besides, who is 
to decide whether they are unsighly or not — every man 
to his taste, and in a well-to-do house there is usually a 
guest hall, tidy and symmetrical to an almost painful 
degree, to which the critical visitor may confine his 
attentions. In my lady's bedroom, however, there are 
many treasured oddments, which no one ever thinks of 
dusting, sometimes anatomical remains, which shall be 
nameless, and accumulations which overflowed even on 
to the bed. These things did not trouble her however, 
she sat with perfect ease ready to join in a conversation, 
which she, however, had no notion of starting on her own 
account. She was but a girl, after all, with no education 
save the smattering of learning which the teacher 
sister had helped her to acquire during the short space 
of time when the " Before Born " (her husband) had per- 
mitted her to attend a school, opened recently for higher 
class girls. 

She was busy now, she said — too busy to go to school 
any longer, and those who understood, congratulated her 
on the " possession of joy," the graceful Chinese way of 
signifying a coming event. Besides she did " needle- 
thread " she added, and showed us some bits of dainty 
embroidery for the ends of pillows. 

And then suddenly a shadow crossed her face, a look 
almost of terror, and she clutched the teacher sister's 
hands and indicated that some one had stolen up outside 
the window. After all, it was only the little second wife 
who had lately been imported into the household. We 
had seen her already and knew her as a pretty lively, 



256 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

sharp-tongued little lady who, in her short life, had 
travelled much and knew the world and was, so report 
said, a greater favourite with the Before Born " than 
the others. The little scene, though quickly over, told 
us quite enough of the strained state of affairs existing 
between the two. As we bade our farewells with the 
usual formulas : — " Du tsai ! " (all remain where you 
are) — " Please do not accompany us further," we passed 
the rooms of number two, who was standing as unper- 
turbed mistress of the situation at her own door, smiling 
with a touch of triumph in her smile, for with her good 
luck, her quick wit, and her education (she could both read 
and write) she seemed to say that it was she, and no 
other, who in time would be the ruler of the household.* 
Yet in spite of the unhappiness of so much of their own 
married life, the Chinese woman finds it difficult to under- 
stand why their English sisters should so often prefer to 
remain unmarried. Li Hung Chang, speaking of the 
massacre of the nuns in the days of terror at Tientsin, 
voices evidently the sentiments of his countrymen when 
he says : — " Our people think the putting out of the way 
of the nuns is a benefit to the latter as well as to the world 
at large, for they have no husbands and by their looks do 
not get much to eat." 

* Since writing this, news has reached me that number two now stands alone, 
for the other is dead ; died, they tell me, in giving birth to her child. 



CHAPTER XX 

" Stooping Soldiers " * 

" If man does not recognise spring, plants do," goes 
the saying, and though there is still a wintry touch about 
the winds that blow, the air in the garden courts tucked 
into odd corners amongst the buildings of the " Save 
the World " hospital, is sweet with the scent of flowers, 
the white petalled blossoms of the " smiling flower " 
(magnolia) and the feathery sprays of the white lilac. 
Once upon a time, the place, famous now throughout the 
city and for many a mile around for its good deeds and 
the " fragrant name " of its doctors, was the little-known 
palace of a mandarin. 

On fine days a melodious whistle, long drawn out, 
passes and repasses far overhead— softer and louder and 
louder again. These are the pigeons with little musical 
instruments attached to their tails— tame pigeons which 
will return to their homes at night. Once again the kites 
have appeared, another sure sign of spring, kites of every 
size and shape from dragons to butterflies. Even the 
soldiers dawdling round the city gates cannot resist 
joining in this most alluring of pastimes. Great skill is 
shown by the experts— some of whom, of course, have 
had many years' practice. A Chinese author tells the 
story of one of these elderly kiteflyers— a paterfamilias 
who, having been called away on business, tied the string 
of his kite, an enormous specimen, larger than himself, 

* Brigands. 



258 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

on to his baby's cradle. What was his dismay on his 
return to find that a gust of wind had seized the kite which 
had soared out of sight, carrying with it the cradle ! 

But to return to our city of Si An Fu, whilst the soldiers 
were amusing themselves flying kites, and their friends 
were tying whistles to pigeons' tails, and whilst the more 
serious-minded were getting ready to " sweep the graves " 
at the " Clear Bright Festival," and the " mai mai ren " 
were beginning to admit that trade was good, flying 
words of serious import broke in upon our peace. 

" White Wolf," the bandit chief who, for many months 
now, had been striking terror into the hearts of the people 
in neighbouring provinces, was marching by quick stages 
towards the Si An plain. 

It was said that this soldier of fortune — called the 
" White Wolf " from a play on his name — had begun life 
as a corporal. He was the son of respectable farmers in 
the province of Honan, and whatever his military rank 
may have been, it was soon evident that he possessed the 
independence of character, the power of organisation and 
the gift of inspiring confidence in others which go so far 
towards the making of a leader of men. The story used 
to be noised abroad in Shensi that the bandit chief had 
first made his mark as military adviser to a certain luck- 
less general, at whose untimely death he vowed vengeance 
against the powers that be, but, as in the early days of 
the Republic scullions turned into corporals and corporals 
into military magnates and students into Cabinet 
Ministers in the twinkling of an eye, so "White Wolf" 
may easily have been both corporal and adviser. One 
point appears certain, that for one reason or another he 
was soon at loggerheads with the authorities, and we hear 






"STOOPING SOLDIERS" 259 

of him at the head of some sixty stalwart braves, escaping 
almost miraculously from a trap that had been laid for 
him. He was now a free lance and lost no time in 
strengthening his position. The sixty followers increased 
by scores and by hundreds, success brought success, and 
in those days of change and uncertainty, of sham Par- 
liaments, of an unstable Government and ever-varying 
laws, all things were in favour of a soldier of fortune. 

In the summer of 191 3, we hear of him besieging cities 
and holding foreigners for ransom. A price was put upon 
his head, and during the autumn months soldiers scoured 
the province of Honan, pursuing him in this direction and 
in that. They acquitted themselves with such zeal that on 
our way through the province a few weeks later we learnt 
that he had been caught and killed several times over, and 
that on each occasion prize money had been paid over 
to the soldiers, who had triumphantly brought in the 
decapitated head for inspection. 

The brigand chief, however, with the mobility that has 
always characterised his movements, ran little risk of 
being captured by the happy-go-lucky soldiers of the 
Honan army. His power grew till he became a terror in 
the land. 

Since in China the " sins of a son are visited on his 
father," orders were given to destroy the ancestral farm 
and all its occupants. By the winter, " White Wolf " 
at the head of an extensive army, consisting chiefly 
of disbanded soldiers, marched on into neighbouring 
provinces, killing and looting. 

It was New Year's Eve when he reached the city of 
L , in the province of Anhwei. 

In the house of the " foreign teacher " on New Year's 



260 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

morning a gruff voice was heard demanding the " smoke- 
dragon." The smoke-dragon ! Did he mean the kitchen 
chimney — were they, perhaps, searching for food ? No ; 
he meant the opium pipe. Here, however, he had missed 
his mark, there were no opium pipes in that house. He 
might, if he liked, look for himself and see. His followers 
however, had other and more sinister ends in view. 
" Where is the school ? " they asked — " the girls' school ? 
Are there no girls here, then ? " 

" None — you may see for yourselves." 

But here, as everywhere their greatest desire was for 
money — not copper money, however, for that was far too 
bulky to carry far on a quick march, and " White 
Wolf's " men must move quickly or not at all. This was 
one of the unwritten laws of the bandit army and, 
according to reports, some who had failed to keep up with 
the rest had been promptly shot. 

It was silver that they wanted, and experience had led 
them to seek it in the right quarters. A young doctor 
who had been trained in a foreign hospital, had set up in 
practice in the city not long before. In seeking to protect 
himself by hoisting the Red Cross flag over his door he 
had only succeeded in attracting the attention of the 
brigands. A man as well dressed as he, and making a 
living as a foreign-trained doctor, was certain to have 
money, so as he showed no signs of producing it, they 
shot him in the leg, wounding him badly. 

His servant carried him bleeding to his friends at the 
Yamen, but alas ! his friends, wise in their generation, 
had fled. 

" Then take me," he said, " to the house of the 
1 foreign teacher,' for he will surely befriend me." 



"STOOPING SOLDIERS" 261 

And now for the foreign teacher came one of the 
most dangerous moments of the day. The bandits 
crowded into his house in the wake of the wounded man. 

" We want silver," they said. 

" Give them silver," gasped the servant — his eyes blue 
like those in a dead sheep's head with fright. " Only 
give them what they want and surely my master will pay 
it back to you later on." 

But already the foreign teacher had brought forth 
his little store — some twelve dollars. 

" We want more than that," they said. 

" Yes, give them more. Give them more ! " pleaded 
the servant. 

" I have no more ! " 

But the servant, being Chinese, did not believe this — 
and begged piteously that more should be produced, and 
the brigands smiled grimly, thinking they were in luck's 
way. 

But as not even the skill of an outside kingdom man 
could create silver in an empty cash box, the twelve 
dollars remained twelve dollars, and even the unfortunate 
servant began to realise that the " Before Born " was in 
earnest and his words were true words. 

" Then we will shoot you ! " said the brigands. 

And one of them, drawing forth his dirk, pretended to 
stab him. " I will run my knife into you," he muttered. 

" Very well," said this strange foreigner, who seemed 
afraid of nothing, and with a smile on his face he came a 
step nearer to them holding out his hand. " Very well, I 
am not afraid to die." 

The words and the smile puzzled them. 

It was they who drew back. 



262 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

" Did you say," said one, " that you can't be killed." 

" No, nothing of the kind. I said I am not afraid to 
die ! " And the two boys and the foreign teacher's " Si 
mu " (wife) — they were evidently not afraid either ! They 
faced the brigands who levelled their guns at them, as 
calmly and as pleasantly as though they were looking 
at a peep-show. Strange ! thought the men, for they were 
unused to such stoicism. They could not understand it 
and felt uncomfortable in its presence. They professed 
indifference, however, and swaggered off dividing the 
money on the way. 

Before evening the city was in flames. The houses of 
the wealthy, and those belonging to the salt and the grain 
merchants had one and all been ruthlessly set on fire. 
Streets and shops were littered with the discarded copper 
coins. The rich had fled, and all that the brigands cast 
aside, the poorest of the poor, and the beggars of the 
city, took for themselves. 

During the day the foreign teacher had earned for 
himself a " fragrant name " amongst the bandits. He 
had, by urgent request, bound up wounds and rendered 
useful service to not a few. 

When, therefore, that night a band of incendiaries 
came to his house, and suggested setting that on fire with 
the rest, they were promptly deterred by their leader. 
" Nay," he said, " that is the house of the foreign doctor 
and must on no account be touched." 

Looters, however, came again more than once in search 
of treasure. A man of somewhat superior type to his 
companions presented a handsome jade bracelet to one 
of the fearless little English boys in return for a mouth- 
organ, and instructions how to use it. The bracelet, 



"STOOPING SOLDIERS" 263 

however, was soon seized upon by the next bandit that 
passed that way. Towards the end of the second day the 
words " a wind is blowing " were passed rapidly from the 
one to the other down the crowded street. There was 
evidently not a moment to be lost, for the enigmatical 
phrase meant to the initiated that Government soldiers 
were in pursuit and would soon be upon them. 

They were rough customers these "White Wolf" 
brigands, but the very ones who had made the most 
trouble in the foreigner's house lingered a moment to bid 
farewell, and gave token of the admiration they had felt 
for the superb courage of the two lads by dropping on one 
knee before them and giving the salutation that is never 
offered in China except to a superior. 

After the bandits had gone, the city still smouldered, 
and the poor and the outcasts and the ne'er-do-weels crept 
out from their hiding places, and swept up the copper 
cash, and dug out treasure from the burnt ruins, and 
removed furniture from deserted houses, and collected 
stores of salt and rice and grain from charred and smoking 
heaps, of which a good deal was still usable. 

Some of them will look back to the " White Wolf " 
invasion as the day of the founding of their fortunes, 
and many who used to be poor are now for a time, at 
least, almost affluent. " When a man is poor," say the 
Chinese, " he is wanting in enterprise." No longer should 
this reproach be hurled at their heads. 

When " White Wolf " appeared on the border of the 
Si An plain, the Du-Du himself, with the few men at his 
disposal — some 2,000 or so — hurried forth to intercept 
the enemy's progress — a fool's errand, said some, but in 



264 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

any case, it was hinted mysteriously that we were safer 
without the soldiers. At all the city gates, our military 
protectors — being Honanese, and nominally at least 
unmarried men — had been hastily removed and replaced 
by local policemen who, having their wives and families 
within the walls, would, it was thought, be more likely 
to remain loyal. 

The " Wolfs " progress was apparently as easy as " hot 
water going through snow." At each place he came to 
the people fled before him. He took what he wanted 
and passed on. 

Some of the Du-Du's men had fallen into one of his 
well-laid traps — and marching into a peaceful little town 
where there were no people about but a few harmless 
country folk, they suddenly discovered that the gates had 
closed behind them, and the country folk, increasing in 
numbers, turned into armed men — the " White Wolf's " 
followers in disguise. Some few of the soldiers " escaped 
by a layer of skin " and appeared at the " Save the World " 
hospital to be healed of their wounds. Rumour re- 
ported that the bandit army had run short of ammuni- 
tion and had been cutting up telegraph wires to supply 
the deficiency ! By this time they were not much more 
than twenty miles away from us — and those in charge of 
the guns on the city wall had seen with the " 10,000-mile 
mirror " (telescope) the fires in the brigands' camp, up in 
the mountains to the south, and reported their numbers 
to be legion. 

In case of attack no one could pretend to say if Si An Fu 
would remain firm or not " White Wolf " had friends 
within the city walls, and bandit armies in China take 
cities by strategy rather than by force. 



"STOOPING SOLDIERS" 265 

Those, the very poor, who " ate empty handed rice " 
had heard of others of their ilk who had made a compe- 
tence for life by merely taking possession of the things 
that the robbers had left behind. " White Wolf's " 
programme was " down with the rich at any cost." It 
was those who " wore good garments and ate good food " 
(were well off) who suffered most, and in some cases 
suffered not unjustly, for only the poor could know how 
often they themselves had " eaten bitterness " at the 
hands of their richer neighbours — those wealthy arrogant 
ones, who had an inconvenient way of buying things 
without paying the full value, of storing up grain so as 
to raise the price, and of treating righteous complaints 
as unwarrantable insults. 

It was said that the soldiers with a keen eye to the 
main chance were beginning to think favourably of 
" White Wolf." Words were noised abroad that all 
prisoners of war in the bandits' camp were financed and 
promoted, whereas the unlucky few who had fallen into 
the hands of the Government troops had been brought 
into the city and shot dead without a word. 

The authorities in Si An Fu fearing trouble within the 
gates, issued peremptory orders prohibiting certain sub- 
jects of conversation. " Do not discuss politics," used 
to be a common notice on the walls of Peking tea shops, 
and now the same rule was again enforced, and every one 
had forgotten the " People's Kingdom " and the proud 
motto of " Liberty, Fraternity, Equality." 

" They are only ten miles away ! " said the " Follower 
of Virtue " one evening, rushing in upon us with the 
disturbing news. 

A few minutes later a terrific report rent the air, as 



266 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

though all the cannon on the city wall had started 
firing. 

But it was not the cannon after all — only a bomb that 
had been jerked out of a soldier's belt as he was riding 
down the street on one of the jolting carts. In exploding, 
it had shattered four men to pieces and brought down an 
archway, causing a temporary panic amongst the people, 
who had mistaken the hubbub for brigands. Before morn- 
ing it seemed more than possible that " White Wolf " 
and his men would be outside the city gates — but we had 
reckoned without the weather. An hour later the rain, 
heavy thunder rain, was falling in a deluge ; by the next 
morning it had turned to sleet and by the next to snow. 
The unmade roads of Shensi sink out of sight altogether 
in a long spell of wet, and it was hardly possible, and cer- 
tainly not probable, that either the Government troops 
or the bandits would march in any direction whatsoever. 
As, however, local conditions of weather could hardly be 
known in Peking, the opportunity seemed an excellent 
one in which to report a grand victory on the part of the 
Government forces. Possibly there was a grain of truth 
at the back of it, for Si An Fu was left severely alone, and 
the brigand army went on its blissful course of destruc- 
tion, looting the cities on the plain. 

On the way back to Honan a few days later the carts of 
merchandise, which had blocked the way so often on our 
journey up, had vanished one and all — carts, animals, 
coolies had gone into hiding, or had been commandeered 
by the transport corps of the northern army, which was 
" oozing " along in pursuit of " White Wolf," and 
which some day, possibly, meant to take up the matter in 
real earnest. For the present there seemed no particular 



"STOOPING SOLDIERS" 267 

hurry. Besides, how could any one with heavy baggage, 
carts and gun carriages, hasten over these impossible 
roads. More than once we met long lines of them bogged 
deep in mud. There was, moreover, an air of permanency 
about the situation which seemed to suggest want of 
interest on the part of the carters, or lack of initiation on 
that of their new masters. 

On one occasion our carts were ordered summarily to 
stand on one side to await the approach of the general 
in command. A mounted bodyguard clattered past, and 
we looked with interest to see the " da ren " (great man) 
ride by in state, but we looked in vain, for the general 
was squatting humbly on the floor of his covered cart, a 
huddled figure hardly visible in the dark background. 

The countryside had changed its winter robe of dusty 
coloured loess into one that was striped and flecked with 
green — the green of the spring wheat which lined the 
terraced cliffs, and spread itself out in broad patches 
on every level tract of land. Diving down into a well- 
watered valley for a mile or so in the province of Honan, 
we found ourselves in a garden of peach trees out in all 
their glory. The pink blossoms hung like rose-tinted 
clouds at the foot of the blue misty mountains, and after 
a while the road itself became a rippling stream, babbling 
down hill amongst the rocks ! 

China in these days, ignoring her beloved doctrine of 
the happy middle course, leaps from one extreme to the 
other, and side by side with her mediaeval roads and 
antiquated means of transport, behold the last new thing 
in military aeroplanes — made of bamboo and aluminium, 
fitted with bombs and French aviators and also in pur- 
suit of " White Wolf." 



268 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

The country people gathered round to look at these 
new inventions of the outside kingdom folk, but their 
stolid faces expressed no surprise. 

An aeroplane was just a new kind of " gwei " (demon) 
and could fly, but what was more natural ? All demons 
could fly, and the scholars would no doubt have reminded 
one of the fact that such things as flying cars were known 
to the men of the Middle Kingdom many hundreds of 
years ago.* 

It was fortunate that our military escort, provided for 
our protection by the officials, did not form part of the 
regular army. 

At each Hsien city the men were changed for the worse. 
The first lot had uniforms and swords, but some of the 
swords were broken ; the next had rifles but no ammu- 
nition ; and on the last day of all, our guards possessed 
neither swords, nor rifles, nor uniforms, but ragged 
clothes and bare feet and were doubtless beggars acting 
as substitutes. 

Three months have, passed since the northern armies 
travelled over the Si An road in pursuit of " White 
Wolf." Patiently they have followed in his wake glean- 
ing the fields that he has reaped through the province of 
Shensi to that of Kansu and back again to Shensi. Loot 
was plentiful and the job proved lucrative. It was a 
thousand pities to bring it to a close too soon, so the 
northern soldiers, appreciating their good fortune, kept 
the hunted " Wolf " at a discreet distance. And now the 
brigand chief, they say, has returned for a while to his 
old haunts in Honan, and the northern armies, resting 

* " Rough wood-cuts of flying cars have been handed down for many cen- 
turies." "The Civilisation of China," H. A. Giles. 



"STOOPING SOLDIERS" 269 

after their labours, might not inappropriately sing the 
song of the three jolly huntsmen : — 

" So they hunted and they hollo'd till the setting of the sun, 
An' they'd nought to bring away at last when the huntin' 
day was done. 

Look ye there. 

" Then one unto the other said, ' This huntin' doesn't pay, 
But we've powler't up and down a bit an' had a rattlin' day, 
Look ye there." 

There was doubtless some connection between 
" White Wolf " and the revolutionary party. But when 
the European War broke out in August, 191 4, and foreign 
moneys were difficult to obtain, the rumours of a fresh 
revolution, planned forth at month in China, died down 
with surprising rapidity, and with dramatic suddenness 
the great bandit chief was declared to be dead. That his 
death was attributed to three different causes aroused 
the suspicions of the incredulous, and although in the end 
the people of Kai Fong Fu had the satisfaction of seeing 
a mutilated head with the inscription " White Wolf " 
hung upon the city wall, there are still many in that 
same province of Honan who continue to believe in his 
existence. 



CHAPTER XXI 

A Painted Cake * 

In the war waged against idolatry during the first 
year of the " People's Kingdom," even the grand old 
Confucian temple at Nanking did not escape. There 
were no idols there to shatter and to burn, but the 
soldiers seized on all the idolatrous accessories of Con- 
fucian worship — the wooden axes, the imitation musical 
instruments, the red-fringed official hats and so forth, 
and battered them to pieces. Though the tablet of the 
" Great Master " above the altar still remained intact the 
floor of his temple was littered with broken trophies. 
They would never be required again ; never again would 
any member of a " People's Kingdom " be called upon to 
" ko teo " even to the " Perfect Sage." 

In the " City of the River Orchid " during the second 
year of the Republic an empty Confucian temple was 
considered great waste of house room, and a company of 
soldiers, bed and baggage, were installed in the once 
sacred precincts. But the third year of the " People's 
Kingdom " beheld a sudden reversion to the old order of 
things. At the "Spring Festival" at Si An Fu, and 
indeed, all over the country, the old time celebrations 
were carried out in detail by order of the President. 
No less than fifty-seven animals — oxen, sheep and pigs — 
were slaughtered that day in the city in honour of the 
" Uncrowned King." The officials assembling before his 

* A thing that has come to nothing. 



A PAINTED CAKE 271 

altar " ko teoed " in the old-fashioned style, and " the 
Perfect Sage, in virtue equal to Heaven and Earth," was 
requested once again to enjoy the offerings presented to 
him. 

The ceremony had taken place early in the morning, 
and when, with the " Follower of Virtue " in attendance, 
I presented myself at the gates under the dusty cypress 
trees, it was only to find that all was over. Before the 
honoured tablet, however, the " Philosopher's King's " 
own share of the feast — a dead ox of substantial dimen- 
sions — still lay undisturbed. Butchers, cutting up the 
other slaughtered animals, were hard at work, and the 
dead pig, the especial property of Confucius's disciples, 
was slung on a bamboo pole to be carried forth and 
divided with the rest. Bowls of grain had formed part 
of the offering, and finally all would be shared out 
amongst the leading men of the city. 

" We will send the teacher mother a piece of the 
Confucian cow," suggested an attendant, receiving, 
however, the hasty assurance that she truly could not 
venture to accept so magnificent an offer. 

Though to many the Republic has become a " painted 
cake," some at least of the seeds scattered here and there 
in the days of its first youth have taken root. Hence 
comes it that amongst men of wealth and men of influence 
quite a few are not only willing, but eager, that their sons 
should acquire some knowledge of Western learning and, 
moreover, adopt the Western religion. It is too late and 
altogether not convenient (" puh bien dang ") they say, 
for them to become Christians themselves, but for the 
rising generation the matter is entirely different. How 



272 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

about the ancestral worship, one inquires — the prayers 
and sacrifices to the spirits of the forefathers required of 
all dutiful sons ? They have faced that question, too, and 
naively make answer that the enforced worship of ances- 
tors ill accords with the spirit of liberty and equality of a 
true republic. " Man man tih " (by degrees) these idola- 
trous ceremonies will all be abolished. " Man man tih " 
democratic China will show the world what a " People's 
Kingdom " should be like ! How this triumph is to be 
achieved nobody knows, but " the sage accomplishes 
great things without undertaking them," said the wise 
men of old, and " the tree of ample branches grew from a 
tender shoot, and the castles of nine stories began with a 
heap of dust ! " 

The reactionary change in the educational programme, 
as illustrated by the management of the last Civil Service 
examination, was certainly a little disconcerting to the 
candidates. For three years they had been working 
hard at Western subjects in accordance with the rules 
laid down. Picture then their dismay when, in the third 
year of the " People's Kingdom," the examiners left 
Western subjects severely alone, and confined their atten- 
tion to the old classics — the very books which, in the 
mad craze for modern learning, had been relegated to 
back shelves. 

" A man who has a knowledge of foreign ways and is 
ignorant of Chinese," said the famous statesman Chang 
Chih Tung, " has become a brute." Possibly this opinion 
is still shared by some of Chang's successors, who would 
also point out the fact, that in many cases modern educa- 
tion and revolutionary ideas have stalked through the 



A PAINTED CAKE 273 

land hand in hand. Men who should have known better 
have " affected illumination for the confusing of old- 
established regulations." 

Ultimate success in the examinations depended greatly 
on the answer to the one important question : " Did you 
fill any official post under the Ching dynasty ? " All 
who replied in the negative were promptly ploughed. 
Great was the bitterness, many were the protests, so 
much so, that the authorities took fright and hastily 
invited the disappointed candidates to enter the lists 
a second time. Those whose papers passed muster were 
thereupon appointed to more or less nominal posts in 
the various provinces. 

That the people should in future understand what is 
expected of their sons, the Ministry of Education 
published a list of seven subjects on which students of 
elementary schools would be periodically examined. They 
were to be taught to love their own country, to respect 
militarism, to exalt truth, to follow the precepts of 
Confucius and Mencius, to encourage self-restraint, to 
beware of greed and contention, and (in this one 
detects a touch of probably unconscious sarcasm) they 
were especially to beware of making too rapid 
progress ! 

These seven principles were " the objects to be attained 
in education." It would be interesting to know on what 
lines the final examinations were conducted. 

Amongst the country people educational reforms, 
though approved in theory, were difficult to put into 
practice. 

In an east coast province orders came from Peking 
that a census should be taken of the children in certain 



274 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

outlying districts with a view to the establishment 
of schools. The laudable efforts of the gentry, how- 
ever, who undertook to make the necessary inquiries 
were woefully misunderstood. The names and ages of 
the boys and girls could be needed for one purpose only, 
and far and near the rumour got about that in order 
to finish laying the foundations of the new " iron road " 
(railway) bridge over the great river a large number of 
children's souls were indispensable. So and so's son had 
already fallen ill and died as a result of the investigations, 
and there was no telling who would be the next. The 
people, frightened and indignant, mobbed the house of 
the leading magnate of the neighbourhood threatening 
vengeance. 

Soon the whole countryside would have risen in revolt 
had not the book in which the children's names were 
inscribed been hastily handed over to the irate parents, 
and a promise given that no further inquiries should be 
made. Small wonder that altruism finds little favour in 
China ! 

Meanwhile the President, Yuan Shi Kai, lived as a self- 
made prisoner in the " forbidden city " appearing but 
seldom, and then mostly in an armoured motor car. He 
abolished provincial assemblies and Peking Parliaments 
and military governors, and appointed a select band of 
seventy counsellors who wisely followed a piece of advice 
given in the reign of Tao Kuang and by " avoiding any 
reference to vexed questions, were non-committal, in- 
variably humble and plausibly evasive, never criticising 
adversely and never condemning." The polite President 
expressed a hope that the seventy counsellors " would 
become illustrious, and that through them, the welfare 



A PAINTED CAKE 275 

and the misfortune of the people would be made quite 
clear." 

As to the provinces, a military general and a civil 
magistrate would divide the honours between them and 
" produce concord by speaking salutary words to the 
heads of families." 

In places where the President had reason to suspect 
active opposition a military despot with a force at his 
command was appointed to look into things. 

One of these autocrats " confused great matters with 
small," and never ventured thereafter to go beyond the 
gates of his Yamen. On one eventful New Year's Day he 
forbade the use of fire crackers, but the populace, accus- 
tomed to proclamations which might or might not be 
taken seriously, made up their minds that so innocent an 
amusement as the firing of a few crackers could not pos- 
sibly do any one any harm. They had reckoned without 
the soldiers who, patrolling every quarter of the city, 
dragged forth the offenders, old and young, rich and poor, 
into the street and forcing them down on to their knees 
inflicted a hundred blows on all who could not or would 
not purchase their escape. Alas, for the vain boast of 
" Liberty, Equality and Fraternity." 

Still there are many who tell you proudly that " China 
is now a Republic " and talk of the great future of their 
country, and some of them stand waiting for the plums to 
fall. Meanwhile energetic little Japan does not wait but 
gathers a few in advance from the branches of the tree. 

The influence of Japan is far reaching. 

We read in old records of the sixteenth century " that 
the ' barbarians from the islands ' (the Japanese) invaded 
the Inner Land (China) and distressed the villages, on 



276 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

which account the public manners underwent a change ; 
the townspeople became light and vain ; fellows who had 
not a bushel of corn at home would wear elegant clothes 
and beautiful shoes abroad." At the beginning of the 
twentieth century, the " barbarians from the islands " 
play a different game. They invade the ports and the 
big cities, selling goods to ready buyers, teaching schools, 
absorbing trade, and starting industries, thus seeking to 
make themselves more or less indispensable to their fellow 
Orientals. One curious fact remains, significant of much, 
that, in spite of the despoiling of the rich, the pillaging of 
cities, the looting of villages, the devastation of wide 
tracts of country and the borrowed millions of foreign 
money that has been practically poured into a sieve and 
wasted — in spite of all this ruin and distress, China is still 
very nearly as rich as ever she was, but has grown even 
more adept than of old in the art of hiding her light 
under a bushel. Some who have lost their all are by no 
means " living in decay," but have still money enough 
and to spare, for the Chinese are far too clever to put all 
their eggs into one basket. A little of the hoarded 
wealth has been borrowed lately, borrowed in perpetuity 
by the powers that be, to swell the so-called " internal 
loan." To refuse to lend would have been too costly a 
proceeding. " We must devise means to meet our 
obligations," so ran the message from Peking, " for as 
long as the European War lasts ambitious persons will 
watch for an opportunity to grasp the power of directing 
our financial administration, thereby sucking dry our fat 
and marrow, and for ever depriving us as a nation of any 
hope to recover our wonted greatness." 

There are not many, however, who think such a 



A PAINTED CAKE 277 

disaster possible. The coat of arms semi-officially pro- 
posed in the early days of the Republic still reflects the 
aspirations of some of the enthusiasts. In the first place 
grain was selected, to which the sun, moon, and stars 
were added to signify light, a mountain to denote com- 
mand ; a dragon, mutability ; a pheasant, culture ; 
sacrificial cups, filial piety ; aquatic grass, purity ; flames, 
brightness ; grains of rice, nurture ; a hatchet, decision, 
and finally a zig-zag symbol was intended to represent 
discernment. 

But though these dreams of the would-be reformers 
were as " upper floors in the middle of emptiness " one 
thing was certain, that a newborn patriotism was 
struggling for life,* and a new spirit of independence was 
rapidly gaining strength. 

Young China had caught a glimpse of all the kingdoms 
of the world and the glory of them. Once roused, there 
was little she could not do if she set her mind to it. Wit- 
ness the marvellous results of the opium crusade, con- 
ducted under especially difficult circumstances. 

The great Yuan Shi Kai himself assured the world in 
1 91 6 that the Republic had not been a failure and was 
absolutely certain to continue. " The monarchical 
government is as dead in China as in the United States," 
he said. Yet even in the light of these words no one was 
in the very least surprised to hear that the President of 

* In 1919, as a protest against the handing over of Tsingtau to Japan by the 
Allied Powers, the students of China organised one of the most remarkable 
strikes of modern days : universities and schools were closed, shops were shut, 
and banks ceased to do business. As one result of this stand brought about by 
the scholars of the country, certain corrupt officials in Peking, who had been 
playing into the hands of Japan, were dismissed from office, and many are now 
of opinion that the Shantung question will eventually be solved in favour of the 
rightful owner of the soil. 



278 CHANCE AND CHANGE IN CHINA 

the Republic intended himself to become the founder of 
a new dynasty. 

In the East as in the West there is " many a slip betwixt 
the cup and the lip." The " strong man of China," as 
the English journalists used to call him, spoke in honeyed 
tones of the future of the Republic and set himself at the 
same time to make preparations for his own coronation. 

In some Chinese temples there hangs an abacus on the 
wall beneath which these words are inscribed — 

" Many times man reckons up accounts, 
But Heaven reckons once and once for all." 

As ever, it was the unexpected that happened. With 
the dramatic suddenness that so often marks the death 
of a great man in China, Yuan Shi Kai was called upon to 
hand in his last reckoning. 

China — a house divided against itself, with many 
leaders and no ruler — stands in some ways where she has 
stood before with one supreme difference : that she no 
longer considers the " Middle Kingdom " the centre of all 
culture, and the only part of the universe that matters, 
but has widened her outlook and dreams dreams and 
sees visions and cherishes ideals which some day no 
doubt will help to make her people one of the greatest 
nations of the world. 



INDEX 



Abacus, 278 

Actress, 99 

Adoption, 49, 249 

Aeroplane, 267 

Ailanthus, 210 

Aladdin's cave, 203 

Alcohol, 38, 129 

Amazons, 2, 13, 102 

America, 80, 81 

American lamps, 223, 240 ; missions, 

80, 81 ; " style," 102 
Ancestral hall, 77 — 8 
Ancestral worship, 77 
Apomorphine, 38, 129 
Arab, 203, 213 
Army pay, 132 
Arrowroot, 161 
Artists, 28, 231 
Assembly hall, 176 
Astronomers, 192 
Azaleas, 113, 117, 118, 119 

B. 

Ba Giao Si, 37, 41, 45, 48, 53, 74 

Balsam, 118 

Bamboo, 16, 44, 69, 89, 141 

Bandits, 18, 197, 258, 260, 263 

Bark, 113 

Barracks, 81, 178 

Barrows, 137 

Baths, 116, 159, 216 

Beauty, 58, 143, 239, 252 

Beggars, 25, 49, 209, 187, 229 

Belgian engineers, 193 

Betrothal, 64 

Birth, 46 

Birthday cards, 64 

Bitter cakes, 156, 160 

Black market, the, 188 

Blue stone, 175 

Bombs, 190, 266 

Book of rites, 143 

Bricks, 17, 205 

Bridegrooms, 57 — 9, 61 

Brides, 57, 58, 61—3 



Brigands, 153, 257, 261, 264 
Buddhists, 10, 203 — 4 
Bungalow, a, 13 
Burial clothes, 186 
Buried scholars, 203 
Butterfly nets, 17 



Cabinet Ministers, 177, 258 

Cages, 127, 128, 135 

Calendar, 82, 83 

Camphor trees, 19, 55 

Cards, playing, 52 

Carlyle, 2, 181, 190 

Carts, 194, 195, 206, 209 

Castor oil, 45, 158 

Cats, 32 

Census, 133, 273 

Centipedes, 24 

Ceremony clothes, 83 

Chang Hsuan, 184 — 6 

Cheerfulness, 41, 128 

Chekiang, 18, 60, 135 

Chess, 107 

Chickens, 87, 119, 121, 197 

Children, 34, 35, 50, 51, 57, 134, 183, 
249 

Chinese cooks, 1 19, 133, 144, 237, 246 ; 
courtesy, 162 ; customs, 62, 63, 6y, 
86, 90, 147, 198, 202, 222, 225, 244 ; 
detectives, 102 ; diplomacy, 213 ; 
etiquette, 35, 67—8, 147, 238, 242 ; 
financiers, 235 ; gardens, 109, 166 
186, 207; gardeners, 109 — 10, 113 
212 ; homes, 13, 47, 56, 74, 76, 104, 
in, 142, 146, 240, 248; officials, 
42, 94, 149, 227, 228, 272 ; poets, 
in, 117, 163 ; proverbs, 18, 54, 58, 
59, 62, 64, 85, 87, 99, 104, 156, 179, 
190, 201, 208, 212, 227, 232, 249, 
251 ; servants, 197, 208, 223, 233 
— 4, 238 ; superstitions, 30, 67, 91, 
97, "7, !26, 135— 6, 139, 152, 154, 
173, 200, 238 ; youths, 34—6, 85, 
106 

Ching Dynasty, 184, 273 

Christianity, 101 



280 



INDEX 



Christians, 58, 78, 168, 271 

Chu Yuan, 151, 155 

Cigarettes, 80, 81, 126, 219 

City of Old Age, 135 

Clans, 77 

Classics, 73, 83, 90, 218, 272 

Clocks, 95, 176 

Cloths to cry with, 66 

Coal, 135, 144, 160, 243 

Coat of arms, 272 

Cocks, 231 

Cockroaches, 71 

Coffin cement, 71 

Coffins, 65, 71, 130, 164 — 5, 178, 190 

Combretum, 41 

Comfort, 130, 199 

Confucius, 92, 169, 233, 251, 270 — 1, 

273 
Cormorants, 20 
Corn cutter, 223 
Corpse, a, 61, 71, 131 
Corsets, 27, 221 
Cotton, 17, 200 
Cotton-wool tears, 66 — 9 
Cows, 29, 167 — 8, 271 
Crochet, 228 
Cruelty, 130, 165, 185 
Cupping, 123 
Currency, 235 
Cypress, 56, 200 

D. 

Dates, 1, 28, 52, 71 

Dead streets, 223 

Death, 33, 70—1, 73, 91 

Democracy, 177 

Democratic China, 211, 229, 246 

Demon-ridden haunts, 141 

Dessert, no, 241 

Detectives, 102. 

Doctors, 45, 54, 57, 177, 262 

Doles, 8, 246 

Doves, 58 

Dowager Empress, the, 100, 152, 161, 

184 
Dragon, the, 94, 96 
Dragon Throne, 4, 161, 212 
Dress, 12, 88, 162, 239 
Drill, 116 
Drugs, 26 
Ducks, 157 
Du-Dus, 181, 224, 245, 247, 264 



E. 

Education, 105, 227, 248, 273 

Effigy, 74 

Election, parliamentary, 84, 144 

Emperor, the, 200, 235 

Empress, the, 100, 152, 161, 184, 

203—4 
Engineers, 137, 193 
Etiquette, 35, 67—8, 145, 147, 238, 

242 
European War, 269, 270 
Examinations, 14, 273 
Executions, 12, 21, 130, 190 



False vegetables, 243 

Farms, 52, 55 

Fashions, 2, 13, 26, 226 

Feasts, 59, 75, 242—3 

Female Learning Hall, 100 

Festival of Lanterns, 93 

Filial piety, 69, 277 

Finance, 235 

Fire dragon, 95 — 6 

Five evils, 79 

Flowers, 109, no, 124, 257, 267 

Flying cars, 268 

Foreign influence, 2, 12, 13, 14, 26, 51, 

6 3, 75, 79) 8o > 9°> 93> io 3> io 5, II2 > 
115, 140, 145, 169, 173, 176, 178, 
193, 219, 221, 224, 239, 240 

Forest of Tablets, 217 

Fortune-tellers, 27, 223 

Foxes, 118 

Freehold property, 172 

Fruit, 165, 194, 200 

Fuel, 118, 160, 196, 232 

Funerals, 65 — 9, 72, 74, 165 

Fur, in, 253 

G. 

Gamboge, 76 

Games, 106 

Gaol, 126 — 8 

Gardens, 109, 166, 186, 207 

Garlic, 154 

German clocks, 208 ; goose-step, 2 ; 

military caps, 24, 223 ; ware, 115 
Germany, 221, 223 
Gifts, wet and dry, 87 



INDEX 



281 



Ginger, 46 

God of Revenge, 97 

Gold, 79,81,235 

Good Tidings Hall, 169 

Gramophones, 221 

Grass, 73, 136, 189 

Graves, 9, 72, 132, 173, 205, 258 

Guilds, 25, 209 

Gun boats, 182 

H. 

Hair, 57, 221, 249, 253 

Hall of Instruction, 104 

Harmonium, 100, 145 

Hats, 3, 225 

Heavenly Foot Society, 227 

Homes, 13, 47, 55, 104, in, 142, 146, 

240, 248 
Honan, 196, 198, 259 
House-boats, 163, 166 
Housekeeping, 232 



Idols, 10, 11, 40, 81, 93, 140, 148 

Imitation foreigners, 93 

Imperial Edict, 4 

Income tax, 172 

Incubators, 119, 157 

Indians, 44 

Industrial institutes, 178, 205 

Industries, 25, 120 — 1, 156 — 7, 160, 

175 
Inns, 196, 199 
Insects, 71, 83, 128 
Internal loans, 276 
Iyang, 166, 168 

J- 

Jade, 42, 65, 209 — 10, 222, 253, 262 
Jailors, 40 

Japan, 3, 102, 116, 179, 223, 273 
Jewellery, 80 

K. 

Kansu, 217, 268 
Key of Paradise, 215 
Kiangsi, 135—6, 196, 234, 243 
Kindergartens, 2 
King of Thieves, 170 
Kitchen god, the, 73, 88, 89 
Koran, the, 214, 217 
c.c.c. 



L. 

Land tax, 172 

Lanterns, 93 — 4, 171, 244 

Law, 39, 70, 99, 103, 252 

Letter-writers, 27, 222 

Letters, 117, 178, 242 

Life-saving medicine, 54 

Lilac, 117 

Lime, 71, 135 

Loans, foreign, 181, 193 

Loans, internal, 276 

Longevity clothes, 77 

Loquats, 114, 165 

Love the Kingdom Cloth, 178 

M. 

Manchu cities, 7, 205, 207 
Manchus, 7, 8, 198, 204 
Mahommedans, 29, 203, 205, 207 
Malay cure, 41, 42 
Marionettes, 97 
Marriage with a corpse, 61 
Matrimonial market, 80 
Medicine man, a, 24 
Merchandise, 194 
Milestones 20 feet high, 201 
Ming Dynasty, 204, 249 
Ministry of Education, 273 
Moon, eclipse of, 191 
Moslem butchers, 214 
Music, 67, 75, 92, 101, 257 
Mutiny, 9 

N. 

Nails, 34, 41, 45 

Nanking, 1, 5, 8, 12, 14, 15, 183—4, 

198 _ 
Nestorian tablet, 218 — 9 
New Year's Day, 83, 90, 236 
Nourish the Children Hall, 51 
Nuns, 10, 256 



O. 

Official records, 149 

Officials, 42, 94, 149, 227, 228, 272 

Oil, 125 

Old age pensions, 235 

Opium, 37—44, 127—9, H9> 2 77 

Orphanage, an, 15 



282 



INDEX 



Painted clocks, 176 

Painted poultry, 121 

Pagodas, 33, 175, 177 

Paper money, 234 

Parliament, 85, 177, 274 

Parliamentary election, 84 — 5 

Patriotism, 277 

Pepper flowers, 237 

Photographers, 114 — 5 

Pills, 44, 219 

Poison, 76 

Police, 24, 29, 151, 187, 223, 264 

Politics, 240, 263 

Pope Chang LXIL, 174 

Pottery, 164 

Powder, 76, 170 

Po Yang lake, 164, 175, 178, 180 

Prayers, 79, 89, 160, 164, 215, 245 

Presents, 86, 88 

Presidential election, 144 

Prisons, 126 — 8 

Protestant missions, 21, 41, 137, 139, 
150, 168 — 9, 242, 257 

Proverbs, 18, 41, 54, 58, 62, 64, 74, 85, 
86, 87, 99, 104, 105, 156, 179, 190, 
201, 205, 208, 227, 249, 263 

Punch and Judy, 97 — 8 



R. 

Racial mark, 48 

Railways, 2, 10, 26, 137, 193, 274 

Rats, 33 

Rebels, 183 — 4, 204 

Recreation, 107 

Reduplication of death, 71 

Rents, 30 

Republic, 1, 4, 9, 82, 91, 154, 174, 

J 93, i9 8 » 2 35, 270, 277, 278 
Restaurants, 211, 242 
Revenge, 62 

Rice, 31, 136—7, 151, 169, 263 
Robbers, 129, 147, 154, 170 — 1 
Roulette tables, 23 
Rush swords, 152, 154 



S. 



Sacrifices, 158 
Salt, 17, 76, 232 



Save the World Mission, 242, 253, 264 

Scales for silver, 234 

Schools, 80, 99, 101, 105, 114, 116, 

225 — 6, 228, 249, 260, 274 
Self-contained villages, 17 
Serpent Month, the, 151 — 2 
Servants, 197, 208, 233 — 4, 238 
Shadow World, the, 245 
Shanghai, 1, 2, 21, 26, 44, 63, 144, 

183, 189, 221, 224 
Shansi, 198 

Shensi, 198, 258, 266, 268 
Shops, 23, 26 — 7, 84, 221, 223 
Si An Fu, 193, 200—1, 203, 207, 208, 

210, 219 — 20, 223, 227, 245, 266 
Silkworms, 32, 121 — 25 
Silver, 42, 222, 224, 234 
Slaves, 31, 51, 134, 253 
Sleep, 106 

Smoke dragon, the, 260 
Snails, 28, 119 
Soap, 30, 232, 233 
Soldiers, 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, 21, 63, 81, 

in, 114, 147, 155, 183, 189, 264 
Souls, 4, 8, 35, 48, 157, 274 
Spies, 189 
Spirit clothes, 71 
Spirit money, 84 
Spirit wall, 43 
Stage, the, 99 
Steles, 218 

Strike of the students, 277 
Suffragettes, 102 
Suicide, 7, 60, 70, 76 
Sulphur springs, 203 
Sun bride, a, 31 
Sun Yat Sen, 1, 5, 93 
Superstitions, 30, 67, 81, 97, 117, iz6 r 

^Sj !3 6 5 I39> x 52, 154, 173, 174, 

200, 238 
Symbols, 33, 56, 63, 230, 244 
Syriac script, 129 



Tablets, 68, 79, 218, 219, 271 

Tallow, 19 

Tang Dynasty, 203 

Taxable people, 133 

Taxes, 172 

Tea, 161 

Teachers of the world, 199 



INDEX 



283 



Teeth, 81 
Telephones, 224 
Ten tables of wine, 74 
Terrace of Night, the, 130 
Thibet, 194, 204, 212 
Thieves, 170 
Toys, 17, 31, 245 
Trade, 25, 27, 41, 42, 210 
Traveller's candles, 136 
Tray money, 238 
Trees, 113, 200 — 1 
Tsientang river, 19, 25, 163 
Tung Gwan, 197 — 9 
Turkistan, 201 

U. 

Umbrellas, 27, 30, 68, 182, 223 



V. 

Vaccination, 51 
Vegetarians, 30, j6, 253 
Villages, 17, 68, 119, 202 
Visiting cards, 108 
Votes, parliamentary, 85 



W. 

Waifs, 85 

Walls of Gold, 201 

War to punish Yuan, 180 

War, European, 269, 276 

Water dragon, the, 96 

West country people, 169 

Wet gifts, 87 

White Wolf, 258, 267 

Woman of Luck, 57 

Women, 13, 34, 40, 50, 70, 99, 100, 

102, 142, 169, 173, 177, 214, 217, 

248, 251, 256 
Women's rights, 21 2 
Worms of the Kingdom, 93 



Yamen, the, 5, 14, 37, 38, 43, 50, 118, 

126, 129, 180, 189, 224 
Yangtse river, 147, 179, 180 
Yellow river, 198 
Youths, 34, 36, 85, 106 
Yuan Shi Kai, 4, 79, 100, 181, 183, 

187, 188, 277, 278 



THE WHITBFRIARS PRESS, LTD., LONDON AND T0M8RIDGE. 







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